An enormous Shaggy Bracket (Inonotus hispidus)

The Shaggy Bracket (Inonotus hispidus) (Phylum: Basidiomycota, Class: Agaricomycetes, Order: Polyporales, Family: Hymenochaetaceae) is a fairly rare siting in Britain, particularly in Ireland, Wales and Scotland, and is a colourful, tough, inedible fungus, sometimes associated with fruit trees. It is more common in central and southern Europe, and much of Asia and North America. In the USA it is sometimes referred to by the common name Inonotus Canker. The specimen observed was growing on a silver birch, although 400m towards the right and behind the cricket ground was a significant orchard of apple trees. This fungus occurs mainly on trunks of broad-leaved trees, and in particular Fraxinus (ash trees) and Mallus (apple trees). Its hairy upper surface distinguishes it from Beefsteak Fungus. On occasion, white rot results from attack by the Shaggy Bracket and infected trees have to be felled as timber rots leading to trunks or branches breaking and falling off in stormy weather. This annual bracket fungus appears in mid- to late summer and the fruitbodies expand, darken and develop a thinner rounded edge before blackening. The brackets decay and will usually have fallen off their host trees by late autumn. The younger fungus may exude clear or slightly reddish liquid droplets. In terms of its taxonomy, in 1785 French mycologist Jean Baptiste Francois Pierre Bulliard (1742 - 1793) described this species and named it Boletus hispidus. This polypore was assigned its current scientific name in 1879 by the Finnish mycologist Petter Adolf Karsten (1834-1917). Synonyms of Inonotus hispidus include Inonotus hirsutus and Polyporus hispidus (Bull.) Fr.

Posted on August 13, 2024 11:58 AM by rgcooper2023