Benzoin Bracket

Facts

Common Name:

Benzoin Bracket

Scientific Name:

Ischnoderma benzoinum

Cap Diameter (mm):

40-200mm

Cap or Bracket Thickness (mm):

10-20mm

Information

Description:

A medium to large dark brown bracket that has white pores on the underside and is found growing singly or in tiers on the dead wood of coniferous trees, preferably with Spruce.

Distribution:

Rare, late Summer till Winter, sporulating in Autumn.

Habitat:

Conifrous woodland preferring Spruce.

Cap:

The fruitboby, which is an annual, has a dark, reddish-brown upper surface, concentric zoning, darker with age, downy, wrinkled and undulating, it exudes resinous droplets when young, the margin is more or less acute, whitish when young, sessile, not broadly attached.

Flesh:

Pallid brown or whitish, succulent and soft when moist, hard when dry. Odour is strong and fungoid, tastes acidic.

Gills:

Pores are whitish cream, ochraceous with age, angular. Tubes are buff.

Additional Notes:

Habitat: In woodland or plantations, on dead and decayed wood of conifers such as Abies, Araucaria, Picea, Pinus and Pseudotsuga spp., often covering large fallen trunks. Notes: Generally uncommon, but increasingly recorded in southern and south-eastern England. Very similar to Ischnoderma resinosum with few distinct differences. Immature basidiomes have a soft, sappy consistency (the 'leptoporoid’ stage) later becoming hard and fertile (the 'fomitoid' stage). Ref: BC

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