Winter Polypore

Winter Polypore Polyporus brumalis (Pers.) Fr. (illustrated 40% life size) Cap 1–12cm across, convex, centrally depressed, margin often wavy and rolled under; grey-brown, rusty, or tobacco-brown; glabrous or minutely bristly, especially at the margin. Stem 20–40×2–7mm, usually central, often curved and thickened at base; yellow-brown or tawny. Flesh white; leathery. Tubes 0.5–2mm long, slightly decurrent; whitish at first, later pallid or tan. Pores 4–6 per mm, circular; white to cream. Spores 5–6×1.5–2.5¼, subcylindrical; white. Hyphal structure dimitic, with generative and binding hyphae; generative hyphae with clamp connections. Habitat on dead wood of deciduous trees, usually logs and fallen branches; winter through to at least early spring. Common. Not edible. Note P. ciliatus Fr. is very similar but fruits in summer; in my first book I published this picture as P. ciliatus.