I'm pretty sure this is a fomitopsis pinicola, but it has a very erratic tumor-like growth on top of it. It seems to be contiguous with the bracket as opposed to an attacking foreign body. Anyone seen this before or have knowledge or conjecture of what may cause this ? The "smiley" looking thing is a chunk I cut out to taste it.
Heya Fish Dr....I have a lot of issues with my comp at the moment so it's hard to see the details on u'r...er......conky cancer? lol Does the actual conk have a 'shiny' red edge to it or is it dull like the black/brown? And do you know/remember what kind of wood u found it on?
ooops...and another quest.........how did it taste? lol I'm curious now if it's not some sort of a slime mould.....was it fiberous/hard/dry/porous.....ugh. how about u just mail it to me so i can play with it? :o)
There is no shine to it so I don't think it is one of the Reishi-like ganodermas that we occasionally find out here. It was on a douglas fir or sitka spruce log (they are identical) lying on the forest floor. This was an early infection and the decay of the log was not very advanced. It has a very strong odour, very mushroomy and also strongly citrusy and apricot like. The taste is of mushroom with a sharp bitterness that intensifies with chewing. The texture is much like a rubber eraser and the "growth" tastes just like the conk tissue. I find it a good thing to chew before dinner because bitterness detected by the tastebuds stimulates the gall bladder to completely empty into the stomach, creating a wonderful bath of acid and bile for dinner to fall into. Sometimes I also boil them for tea., and I drink it not so much because it is delicious, which it's not, (more "interesting"), but because I feel I should. If you really want some, it will be completely dry in a few days and I can mail it to you. PM me if interested. Jeff
Ahhh...not so sure now it's a Red-Belted PP? I had originally thought more on the lines of the Reishi but u cleared that as well. There are so many spieces of shelf pp's that we're still learning even up here in NA. Let me do some research and if no one else has figured it out by then I'll see about getting a specimin from u ok? Thanx!
I've seen a range of mushrooms with abnormal hymenial growth on the top side. Possibly combined with the mushroom reorienting itself when the log fell and if it rolled over. The hymenium left face up would darken a bit like this has. The oddest looking abnormal growth I've seen is when gilled or boletoid mushrooms grow gills or tubes on the top of the cap: Takes awhile to figure out what yer looking at. :-) frog
Agree with u on BOTH accounts here! lol This last summer we would find Purple-gilled Laccaria doing exactly that! It would look like they were exploding out the top of the cap? But yet be firm and no holes. I was also wondering on this conk here.......our red-belted pp sp. tend to grow 'babies' on top also? And just depending on how young/old they are is when the colors and crackles and patterns would start to appear. This was true mostly on the fallen trees but I also saw some on standing ones as well?
A specimen ? LOL What's left of it now is little white cubes. I'm pretty sure of the species though, it is about the most common here abouts. It is only now suitable for Identification by taste. I have seen the re-orienting thing before, but the original fruitbody was still in the appropriately horizontal plane, and my guess less than two years old. The pristine white underside that you see in the second photo is the underside of the fruitbody, not the growth. I have not seen the gills out the cap phenomenon, but I have heard it said by growers that this can be brought about by hydrocarbon pollution, especially petroleum products.
