Specimen AB#16 (Oven Mitt)

I was rather perplexed by this particular fungus. As I walked past it looked as if a pancake was growing out of the side of a fallen tree.

Figure 1. Ischnoderma resinosum looking very much like a golden brown pancake

Figure 2. From the underside Ischnoderma resinosum looks like a thick oven mit

Name: Ischnoderma resinosum

Family:  Fomitopsidaceae

Collection Date: 10/04/2011

Habitat: “Solitary or several together (often overlapping) on dead hardwoods and conifers, fruiting mostly in the summer and fall; widely distributed but not particularly common” (Arora, 1986).

Location: West Woods

Description: “Fruiting body annual; shelflike or bracketlike, watery at first and often exuding droplets, especially near margin of cap, becoming tougher and drier in age. Cap 5-30 cm broad and 1-3 cm thick, fan to kidney shaped or semicircular in outline; surface rough or velvety (like sandpaper) at first (but often nearly smooth in age), …color usually dark brown to blackish… flesh whitish to beige, tan, or brownish…becoming tough and corky in age. Pores minute, white or creamy, but often becoming brownish age…Stalk absent” (Arora, 1986).

 

 

Collector: Andrew Burns

Key Used: Arora. D., (1986) Mushrooms Demystified 2^nd Edition, Ten Speeds Press, New York, NY

Keying Notes:

Major Groups of Fleshy Fungi… p.52

Polypores & Bracket Fungi… p.549

1b. Spore bearing surface not composed of tubes, of if composed of tubes then the tubes forming a united layer (i.e. not discrete); fruiting body fleshy, tough, woody,etc…2

2b. Fruiting body knoblike, hooflike, bracketlike, shelflike, or crustlike; stalk absent, rudimentary, or attached to the side or top of cap; growing on wood or roots…4

4b. Pore surface exposed…5

5b. Pore surface not separable…6

6b. Fruiting body normally with a cap, but sometimes resupinate…7

7b. Spore bearing surface composed of a tube layer which forms minute pores…8

8b. Spore bearing surface with tubes (pores)…10

10a. Fruiting body annual (with only one tube layer), the cap soon dark brown, fruiting body tougher in age; pore surface whitish at first but aging or bruising darker (brownish); found on dead trees (logs, stumps, etc)… p.573, Ischnoderma resinosum

Correlating Links:

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/ischnoderma_resinosum.html