Smoky Polypore

(Bjerkandera adusta)

Conservation Status
Smoky Polypore
 
  IUCN Red List

not listed

 
  NatureServe

not listed

 
  Minnesota

not listed

 
           
           
           
 
Description
 
 

Smoky Polypore is a widespread and fairly common bracket fungus. It is found in dense, overlapping rows or fused clusters on dead hardwoods. It is rarely found on conifers. It usually takes the form of bracket on the side of a tree or log but occasionally appears as a crust on the underside of a dead branch.

The fruiting body is a medium-sized, unstalked bracket. The bracket is elongated or fan-shaped, flat or wavy, up to 4 wide, and up to 2 deep. It is leathery and flexible or corky when fresh, becoming rigid and inflexible when dry. The upper surface is dry and white to tan, smoky gray, or grayish-brown. It is usually weakly concentrically zoned in shades of brown and gray, sometimes unzoned. When young, it is velvety-hairy or finely hairy and the margins are whitish. When mature, it is nearly hairless and the margins turn brown to black, giving a scorched appearance. The species name adjusta means scorched, referring to the blackened margins on mature and older specimens, the most distinguishing feature of the mushroom when encountered in the field.

There is no stem.

The underside is densely covered with spore-bearing pores. It is whitish when young, bruising gray, and turning smoky gray to blackish at maturity. The pores are very minute and barely visible without a hand lens. There are 5 to 7 pores per millimeter. The spore tubes are no more than 1 16 deep.

The flesh is white, tough, and corky or leathery. It is not poisonous but is inedible due to a tough texture and a sour taste.

The spore print is white.

 
     
 

Similar Species

 
 

Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor) is distinctly zoned in contrasting shades and sometimes multiple colors. The pore surface is white, not gray.

 
     
 
Habitat and Hosts
 
 

Dead hardwoods

 
     
 
Ecology
 
 

Season

 
 

Present year round but fruits after fall rains

 
     
 
Distribution
 
 

Distribution Map

 

Sources

4, 7, 24, 26, 29, 30, 77.

 
  1/28/2023      
         
 

Occurrence

 
 

Widespread and fairly common

 
         
 
Taxonomy
 
  Kingdom Fungi (fungi)  
  Subkingdom Dikarya  
  Division Basidiomycota (club fungi)  
  Subdivision Agaricomycotina (jelly fungi, yeasts, and mushrooms)  
  Class Agaricomycetes (mushrooms, bracket fungi, puffballs, and allies)  
  Subclass Agaricomycetidae  
  Order Polyporales (shelf fungi)  
  Family Phanerochaetaceae  
  Genus Bjerkandera  
       
 

A recent study (Justo et al., 2017) reviewed the Polyporales based on new molecular DNA data. The genera were realligned within three new and fifteen existing families. The genus Bjerkandera was transferred from the Meruliaceae family to the Phanerochaetaceae family.

 
       
 

Synonyms

 
     
       
 

Common Names

 
 

Scorched Bracket

Smoky Bracket

Smoky Polypore

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Polypore

A bracket fungi. A fungi that produces its spores in pores on the underside of a woody fruiting body (conk).

 

Saprobic

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

 
 
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    Smoky Polypore      

 

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Slideshows
 
  Bjerkandera adusta - fungi kingdom
Fungi Kingdom
 
   
 
About

Published on Jan 23, 2015

Bjerkandera adusta - fungi kingdom

 

 

slideshow

       
 
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Other Videos
 
  Bjerkandera adusta.Champimaginatis.English Text
jean pierre Piétri
 
   
 
About

Published on May 1, 2012

Bjerkandera adusta. Polypore brûlé. Non comestible.

   
  Ciuperci din Romania, Bjerkandera adusta, ciuperca de lemn
Adrian Manolache
 
   
 
About

Published on Mar 14, 2015

   
  Ciuperca necomestibila, Bjerkandera adusta, ciuperca de lemn
Adrian Manolache
 
   
 
About

Published on May 5, 2014

Prezinta importanta medicinala. Necomestibila.

   
  Ciuperca Bjerkandera adusta, ciuperca de lem, necomestibila
Adrian Manolache
 
   
 
About

Published on May 5, 2014

ShareEmbedEmail https://youtu.be/4tMT8xDDAfQ Start at: 0:00 Published on May 5, 2014 Prezinta importanta medicinala. Necomestibila.

   

 

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