Winter Polypore

Monday Mushroom #112

Winter Polypore - Polyporus brumalis

The winter polypore is one of the most mushroom-shaped of polypores. It quite often looks just like a regular, gilled mushroom until you look underneath and see the pores, or touch it: it's leathery in a way that very few gilled fungi are.

Winter Polypore - Polyporus brumalis

Polypoerus tuberaster Poses

Polyporus tuberaster - growing out of the top of a gorse branch.

Polyporus tuberaster - growing out of the side of a gorse branch.

Bay Polypore

Monday Mushroom #108

Lots of bay polypores fruiting at the moment. They come up pale pale and soft, then harden to a leathery texture and begin to take on the colouration for which they are named.

Bay polypore - Polyporus badius

Bay polypore - Polyporus badius - freshly emerged fruiting bodies.

Dryad's Saddle

Monday Mushroom #72

Here is a newly emerged Dryad's Saddle fruiting body - they appear in early to mid summer.  The disc-shaped caps expand rapidly...

Polyporus squamosus - Dryad's Saddle.

...becoming wavy, irregular brackets somewhat larger than dinner-plates. Some are even a bit saddle-shaped, though most remind me more of the shape of an old-fashioned tractor seat.

Polyporus squamosus - Dryad's Saddle.

Polyporus badius

Monday Mushroom #20

Polyporus badius

Polyporus badius

Polyporus badius has pores so fine, that its undersurface appears perfectly smooth under all but the closest scrutiny. Polyporus tuberaster, on the other had seems positively spongy, even at a distance.

Polyporus tuberaster