Gilled Polypore

(Trametes betulina)

Conservation Status
Gilled Polypore
Photo by Luciearl
  IUCN Red List

not listed

 
  NatureServe

not listed

 
  Minnesota

not listed

 
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
 
Description
 
 

The name Gilled Polypore sounds like an oxymoron but accurately describes this mushroom. It looks very much like a Turkey Tail but the pore surface on the underside has gills. It is widespread across Europe, Asia, and North and South America. In the United States it is very common from the East Coast to the Great Lakes states, south to Texas, and on the West Coast. It is less common in Minnesota where it is at the western edge of its range. It obtains its nutrients from dead wood (saprobic). It grows on logs and stumps of a wide variety of hardwoods, especially oak and willow, rarely also on conifers. It is usually found in overlapping rows or columns, sometimes scattered.

The fruiting body is a small, stalkless, leathery, shelf-like bracket. The bracket is fan-shaped to nearly round, flat to convex, 1¼ to 4 wide, and up to ¾″ thick. The upper surface is concentrically zoned with varying textures and and colors including white, tan, gray, brown, yellowish-brown, and orange. It is densely covered with hairs and is often bumpy and ridged. Older specimens are often green due to a covering of algae.

The gills are tough, sharp, up to deep, and closely or somewhat widely spaced. When young they are white and sometimes form elongated pockets. As they age they darken and become wavy.

The flesh is white, thin, leathery, and tough, becoming corky on older specimens. It is inedible.

The spore print is white.

 
     
 

Similar Species

 
 

Conifer Mazegill (Gloeophyllum sepiarium) gills are yellowish-brown or rusty brown, not white. It grows mostly on conifers, occasionally also on hardwoods.

Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor) has pores on the underside, not gills.

 
     
 
Habitat and Hosts
 
 

Deciduous and mixed woodlands

 
     
 
Ecology
 
 

Season

 
 

July through December

 
     
 
Distribution
 
 

Distribution Map

 

Sources

4, 24, 26, 29, 30, 77.

 
  10/29/2021      
         
 

Occurrence

 
 

Common

 
         
 
Taxonomy
 
  Kingdom Fungi (fungi)  
  Subkingdom Dikarya  
  Phylum Basidiomycota (club fungi)  
  Subphylum Agaricomycotina (jelly fungi, yeasts, and mushrooms)  
  Class Agaricomycetes (mushrooms, bracket fungi, puffballs, and allies)  
  Subclass Agaricomycetidae  
  Order Polyporales (shelf fungi)  
  Family Polyporaceae (bracket fungi)  
  Genus Trametes  
       
 

Gilled Polypore was formerly known as Lenzites betulina. In 2011, based on phylogenetic analysis, it was transferred to the genus Trametes.

 
       
 

Synonyms

 
 

Lenzites betulina

Lenzites betulinus

 
       
 

Common Names

 
 

Birch Mazegill

Gilled Polypore

Multicolor Gill Polypore

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Saprobic

A term often used for saprotrophic fungi. Referring to fungi that obtain their nutrients from decayed organic matter.

 
 
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Luciearl

 
    Gilled Polypore      
           
 
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Trametes betulina - II
Amadej Trnkoczy
  Trametes betulina - II  
 
About

Trametes betulina, syn. Trametes betulina
Multicolor gill polypore, Birken-Blaettling
Slo.: brezova lenzovka

Dat.: Jan. 05. 2012
Lat.: 46.34443 Long.: 13.56226
Code: Bot_587/2012_IMG8296

Habitat: South inclined mountain slope, mostly broadleaf forest with individual Picea abies, calcareous ground, quite humid and warm place, partly in shade, partly protected from direct rain by tree canopies, average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 8-10 deg C, elevation 495 m (1.600 feet), alpine phytogeographical region.

Place: Bovec basin, at the foot of Mt. Čukla, near the trail from Mala vas to Ravni laz place, East Julian Alps, Posočje, Slovenia EC

Substratum: Dead, thick, broken-off branch of Corylus avellana, hanging, not on ground.

Comments: Growing in a group of many basidiocarps, pileus diameter up to 13 cm (5 inch), sterile surface of caps velutinate, indistinctively zonate, whitish with pale ochre bands (oac893), pore surface whitish-beige (oac807), tube layer concolorous with pore surface, context white (oac900); smell distinctive mushroomy, pleasant; SP white.

Spores smooth, cylindrical, some slightly allantoid. Dimensions: 5.7 (SD = 0.4) x 2.6 (SD = 0.2) micr., Q = 2.24 (SD = 0.19), n = 30. Motic B2-211A, magnification 1.000 x, oil, in water. Congo red.

Ref.:
(1) A.Bernicchia, Polyporaceae s.l., Fungi Europaei, Vol. 10., Edizioni Candusso (2005), p 314.
(2) G.J.Krieglsteiner (Hrsg.), Die Grosspilze Bade-Württembergs, Band 1, Ulmer (2000), p 542.
(3) M.Bon, Parey's Buch der Pilze, Kosmos (2005), p 318.
(4) R.Phillips, Mushrooms, Macmillan (2006), p 312.

 

 

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Other Videos
 
  Maze mushroom-Trametes betulina in Goa university campus
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About

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This lignicolous basidiomycetes is well adapted to GU campus and mineralizes the wood

   
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Published on Aug 28, 2016

Trametes betulina is one of many medicinal mushrooms that can help fight the flu.

   

 

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  Apricity Apricity
Fall 2021

Location: Martin County, Fairmont, MN

 
  Luciearl
12/31/2018

Location: Cass County

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Created: 1/4/2019

Last Updated:

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