The Polyporales are an order of about 1800 species of fungi in the division Basidiomycota. The order includes some polypores as well as many corticioid fungi and a few agarics. Many species within the order are saprotrophic, most of them wood-rotters. Some genera, such as Ganoderma and Fomes, contain species that attack living tissues and then continue to degrade the wood of their dead hosts. Those of economic importance include several important pathogens of trees and a few species that cause damage by rotting structural timber. Some of the Polyporales are commercially cultivated and marketed for use as food items or in traditional Chinese medicine.
Polypores are a group of fungi that form large fruiting bodies with pores or tubes on the underside. They are a morphological group of basidiomycetes-like gilled mushrooms and hydnoid fungi, and not all polypores are closely related to each other. Polypores are also called bracket fungi or shelf fungi, and they characteristically produce woody, shelf- or bracket-shaped or occasionally circular fruiting bodies that are called conks.
Tremella fuciformis is a species of fungus; it produces white, frond-like, gelatinous basidiocarps. It is widespread, especially in the tropics, where it can be found on the dead branches of broadleaf trees. This fungus is commercially cultivated and is one of the most popular fungi in the cuisine and medicine of China. T. fuciformis is commonly known as snow fungus, snow ear, silver ear fungus, white jelly mushroom, and white cloud ears.
Sparassis is a genus of parasitic and saprobic mushroom characterised by its unique shape and appearance and is found around the globe. Its appearance can be described as similar to a sea sponge, a brain or a head of cauliflower, hence its popular name.
Fomitopsis pinicola, is a stem decay fungus common on softwood and hardwood trees. Its conk is known as the red-belted conk. The species is common throughout temperate Europe and Asia. It is a decay fungus that serves as a small-scale disturbance agent in coastal rainforest ecosystems. It influences stand structure and succession in temperate rainforests. It performs essential nutrient cycling functions in forests. As well as a key producer of brown rot residues that are stable soil components in coniferous forest ecosystems. It has been reported that mushrooms have significant antioxidant activity.
Ganoderma applanatum is a bracket fungus with a cosmopolitan distribution.
Inonotus obliquus, commonly called chaga, is a fungus in the family Hymenochaetaceae. It is parasitic on birch and other trees. The sterile conk is irregularly formed and resembles burnt charcoal. It is not the fruiting body of the fungus, but a sclerotium or mass of mycelium, mostly black because of a great amount of melanin. Some people consider chaga medicinal.
Rhodofomes cajanderi is a widely distributed species of bracket fungus. Commonly known as the rosy conk due to its rose-colored pore surface, it causes a disease called a brown pocket rot in various conifer species. It is inedible. It is widespread in western North America, with more prevalence in southern climates. It has a particular preference for higher-altitude spruce forests.
Trametes elegans, also known as Lenzites elegans and Daedalea elegans, is a common polypore and wood-decay fungus with a pantropical distribution found on hardwood hosts in regions including Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. It has recently been suggested to be a complex of three different species: T. elegans,T. aesculi, and T. repanda.
Fomitopsis is a genus of more than 40 species of bracket fungi in the family Fomitopsidaceae.
Bridgeoporus is a fungal genus in the family Polyporaceae. A monotypic genus, it contains the single polypore species Bridgeoporus nobilissimus, first described to science in 1949. Commonly known both as the noble polypore and the fuzzy Sandozi, this fungus produces large fruit bodies that have been found to weigh up to 130 kilograms (290 lb). The upper surface of the fruit body has a fuzzy or fibrous texture that often supports the growth of algae, bryophytes, or vascular plants.
Inonotus dryadeus, commonly known as oak bracket, warted oak polypore, weeping polypore or weeping conk, is an inedible species of fungus belonging to the genus Inonotus, which consists of bracket fungi with fibrous flesh. Most often found growing at the base of oak trees, it causes white rot and decay of the trunks. It secretes an amber liquid which weeps from tubes in its upper surface.
Fomes fomentarius is a species of fungal plant pathogen found in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. The species produces very large polypore fruit bodies which are shaped like a horse's hoof and vary in colour from a silvery grey to almost black, though they are normally brown. It grows on the side of various species of tree, which it infects through broken bark, causing rot. The species typically continues to live on trees long after they have died, changing from a parasite to a decomposer.
Annulohypoxylon archeri is a saprophytic fungus species. It was moved from the genus Hypoxylon into the genus Annulohypoxylon erected in 2005 by Hsieh, Ju and Rogers.
Fomitopsis ochracea is a polypore fungus found in North America. It was isolated from Albertan forests, and can be found in British Columbia. It has been isolated as far East as Newfoundland, but prefers Northern climates. It can be isolated throughout the Appalachian range, as far down as Georgia. It is a detritivore on both hardwood trees and conifers, causing a brown cubical rot. It is a member of the genus Fomitopsis, a common group of perennial fungi.
Fomitopsis mounceae is a species of shelf fungus. Originally thought to be identical to the red-belted conk, studies show that it is in fact a discrete species. The original specimen was isolated from Edson, Alberta on a poplar tree. This species was named after Irene Mounce, a Canadian mycologist.
Hypsizygus ulmarius, also known as the elm oyster mushroom, and less commonly as the elm leech, elm Pleurotus, is an edible fungus. It has often been confused with oyster mushrooms in the Pleurotus genus but can be differentiated easily as the gills are either not decurrent or not deeply decurrent. While not quite as common as true oyster mushrooms, they have a wide range globally in temperate forests. The mushrooms and vegetative hyphae of this species have been studied in recent years for their potential benefits to human health, and mycoremediation.
Annulohypoxylon thouarsianum is a species of ascomycete fungus.
Echinodontium ballouii is a basidiomycete native to the northeastern United States. It is a polypore and important decomposer of the tree Chamaecyparis thyoides. It was declared an endangered species in 2015 due to the scarcity of this tree, which is threatened by the logging industry. It is probable that around 250 individuals exist today.
Phellinus arctostaphyli, also known as the manzanita conk or the manzanita hoof polypore, is a species of shelf fungus. Native to western North America, this saprotrophic fungus only colonizes the wood of Ceanothus, Adenostoma, and Arctostaphylos.P. arctostaphyli is closely to related to three other North American Phellinus species, including Phellinus tremulae and Phellinus tuberculosus. However, in part due to the "economic insignificance of its hosts," P. arctostaphyli is relatively poorly studied as an individual species.
