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.
Fomitopsis betulina, commonly known as the birch polypore, birch bracket, or razor strop, is a common bracket fungus and, as the name suggests, grows almost exclusively on birch trees. The brackets burst out from the bark of the tree, and these fruit bodies can last for more than a year.
Pleurotus is a genus of gilled mushrooms which includes one of the most widely eaten mushrooms, P. ostreatus. Species of Pleurotus may be called oyster, abalone, or tree mushrooms, and are some of the most commonly cultivated edible mushrooms in the world. Pleurotus fungi have also been used in mycoremediation of pollutants, such as petroleum and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Trametes versicolor – also known as Coriolus versicolor and Polyporus versicolor – is a common polypore mushroom found throughout the world. Meaning 'of several colors', versicolor accurately describes this fungus that displays a unique blend of markings. Additionally, owing to its shape being similar to that of a wild turkey's tail feathers, T. versicolor is most commonly referred to as turkey tail. A similar-looking mushroom commonly called "false turkey tail" is from a different order (Stereum), and thus may sometimes be confused with the 'true' turkey tail mushroom, T. versicolor. Another lookalike is the multicolor gill polypore, T. betulina.
Gloeophyllum sepiarium, the rusty gilled polypore, is a wood decay fungus that causes a brown rot. Gloeophyllum sepiarium grows in thin, dark brown/green brackets on dead conifers. Often found on wood in lumberyards, the fruiting body grows for only one year, and produces spores in late summer and autumn. Its hymenial surface is distinctive from other polypores due to the presence of gills. Gloeophyllum sepiarium is inedible.
Daedaleopsis confragosa, commonly known as the thin walled maze polypore or the blushing bracket, is a species of polypore fungus in the family Polyporaceae. A plant pathogen, it causes a white rot of injured hardwoods, especially willows. The fruit bodies are semicircular and tough, have a concentrically zoned brownish upper surface, and measure up to 20 cm (8 in) in diameter. The whitish underside turns gray-brown as the fruit body ages, but bruises pink or red. It is found all year and is common in northern temperate woodlands of eastern North America, Europe, and Asia. The species was first described from Europe in 1791 as a form of Boletus, and has undergone several changes of genus in its taxonomic history. It acquired its current name when Joseph Schröter transferred it to Daedaleopsis in 1888.
Trametes betulina, sometimes known by common names gilled polypore, birch mazegill or multicolor gill polypore, is a species of inedible fungus.
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.
Trametes pubescens is a small, thin species of polypore, or bracket fungus. It has a cream-colored, finely velvety cap surface. Unlike most other turkey tail-like species of Trametes, the cap surface lacks strongly contrasting zones of color.
Agaricomycotina is one of three subdivisions of the Basidiomycota, and represents all of the fungi which form macroscopic fruiting bodies. Agaricomycotina contains over 30,000 species, divided into three classes: Tremellomycetes, Dacrymycetes, and Agaricomycetes. Around 98% of the species are in the class Agaricomycetes, including all the agarics, bracket fungi, clavarioid fungi, corticioid fungi, and gasteroid fungi. Tremellomycetes contains many basidiomycete yeasts and some conspicuous jelly fungi. Dacrymycetes contains a further group of jelly fungi. These taxa are founded on molecular research, based on cladistic analysis of DNA sequences, and supersede earlier morphology-based classifications. Agaricomycotina contains nearly one third of all described species of fungi.
The minute tree-fungus beetles, family Ciidae, are a sizeable group of beetles which inhabit Polyporales bracket fungi or coarse woody debris. Most numerous in warmer regions, they are nonetheless widespread and a considerable number of species occur as far polewards as Scandinavia for example.
Trametes gibbosa, commonly known as the lumpy bracket, is a polypore mushroom that causes white rot. It is found on beech stumps and the dead wood of other hardwood species. Fruit bodies are 8–15 cm in diameter and semicircular in shape. The upper surface is usually gray or white, but may be greenish in older specimens due to algal growth. Elongated pores are located on the under-surface. The fruiting bodies are frequently attacked by boring beetle larvae.
Triaxomera parasitella is a species of tineoid moth. It belongs to the fungus moth family (Tineidae), and therein to the subfamily Nemapogoninae. It is widespread and common in much of western Eurasia, but seems to be absent from some more outlying regions, such as Portugal and the eastern Baltic, Ireland and Iceland. It has also not been recorded from Slovenia but given that it is found in neighboring countries, it may well occur there unnoticed. Recently, the species was recorded from British Columbia. Generally, it is a moth of warm temperate regions, e.g. in Great Britain it is only a rare and scarce species from the English Midlands northwards.
Polystictus is a genus of fungi in the family Hymenochaetaceae. These fungi may be a type of wood-decay fungus, like the Polystictus versicolor. Named Chanakpa in Dakota, these fungi were used by the Dakota people in the Missouri River region as food. They harvested them when young and tender. They did not harvest from Ash trees, as they claimed this made the fungi taste more bitter. They were prepared by boiling.
Fomes hemitephrus is a bracket fungus in the family Polyporaceae. First named Polyporus hemitephrus by English naturalist Miles Joseph Berkeley in 1855, it was given its current name by the English mycologist Mordecai Cubitt Cooke in 1885. The species is found in Australia and New Zealand, and is one of the most common polypores in those countries, causing a white rot on several tree species.
Lenzites warnieri is a species of fungus in the family Polyporaceae found in parts of Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. The species is a white rot pathogen on living wood. Its corky fruiting bodies in the shape of semicircular plates form on the trunks of several types of deciduous trees growing near water bodies in regions of moist sub-Mediterranean climate. The fruiting body, which has a lamellar fruit layer, produces spores only once.
Medicinal fungi are fungi that contain metabolites or can be induced to produce metabolites through biotechnology to develop prescription drugs. Compounds successfully developed into drugs or under research include antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs, cholesterol and ergosterol synthesis inhibitors, psychotropic drugs, immunosuppressants and fungicides.
Leiotrametes is a genus of two species of poroid white rot fungi in the family Polyporaceae. The genus was circumscribed in 2012 to accommodate Leiotrametes menziesii, and the type species, L. lactinea. Both species were formerly placed in the genus Trametes.
