Oak Curtain Crust

Oak Curtain Crust Hymenochaete rubiginosa (Dicks.) Lév. (illustrated 55% life size) Fruit body forming densely crowded, tiered brackets, 2.5–6cm×2–4cm across, often wavy or lobed at the margin, very rarely resupinate; upper surface closely concentrically zoned deep rust-brown to date-brown; velvety at first, becoming smooth and almost black with age. Fertile or lower surface rust-brown. Flesh rust-brown; thin, brittle. Spores 4–6.5×2.5–3¼, broadly elliptic; whitish to yellowish or olive. Setae 43–80×5.5–10¼, acutely fusoid or lanceolate, projecting beyond the current basidial layer but some becoming buried in the thickening hymenium, thick-walled, dark brown to almost black. Habitat on old rotting stumps of deciduous trees, most commonly oak; all year. Common. Not edible.