What is it?

[TeresaW]

Hi all, I'm new to this and do my best to identify these myself, but I can't quite match this one up. Is it a beefsteak?

It was taken on Sept 28th. It's on an old dead tree stump, possibly beech, in Anderson's Meadow by the River Wensum in Norwich. I think the dust around it is sawdust, someone is making a totem out of the stump, with some pretty carvings, but the funus is still showing clearly. The largest is about 35cm across, as you can probably tell by the ivy. It was too low down to get the underside, I'd already fought through brambles to get the shot.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Chris Yeates]

hi Teresa and welcome to WAB

this is the so-called Dryad's Saddle - Polyporus squamosus; the name "squamosus" refers to the scaly cap - something which Fistulina (beefsteak) doesn't have - they also have a very different pore structure

best wishes

Chris

[TeresaW]

Thank you Chris, that was quick!.

I'm hoping to find some more over the coming weeks, but we are in a drought situation in the East of England, so there's not much happening now.

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by TeresaW

Thank you Chris, that was quick!.

I'm hoping to find some more over the coming weeks, but we are in a drought situation in the East of England, so there's not much happening now.

if you know your flowering plants reasonably well have a peruse of the Fungal Plant Parasites thread . . . - in fact there's a lot happening now!

C

[TeresaW]

That's it! I'm off out for a walk by the river first thing, armed with camera...I never thought about rusts. Seen them of course, but didn't really take any notice.

As for the above, now you've named it, I've found dozens of photos. That'll teach me to look more carefully.

[flaxton]

Chris has turned another one to the Dark Side

Mal

[TeresaW]

Is there no hope for me now?

[hamadryad]

Originally Posted by Chris Yeates

hi Teresa and welcome to WAB

this is the so-called Dryad's Saddle - Polyporus squamosus; the name "squamosus" refers to the scaly cap - something which Fistulina (beefsteak) doesn't have - they also have a very different pore structure

best wishes

Chris

I will add- That is not the only difference between fistulina and polyporus. Whilst The Squamosus has a thick rubbery white flesh thats dry, fistulina has a heavy wet and meat like fibrous texture, which also oozes a red liquid, hence the name beefsteak fungus. this fibrous texture makes fistulina easy to identify in tree pathology even when the fruit body has blackened and aged as the fibrous texture remains.

[flaxton]

Originally Posted by TeresaW

Is there no hope for me now?

NONE
Welcome anyway.

Mal

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by hamadryad

I will add- That is not the only difference between fistulina and polyporus. Whilst The Squamosus has a thick rubbery white flesh thats dry, fistulina has a heavy wet and meat like fibrous texture, which also oozes a red liquid, hence the name beefsteak fungus. this fibrous texture makes fistulina easy to identify in tree pathology even when the fruit body has blackened and aged as the fibrous texture remains.

all good points . . . . a key difference as well - and one which separated Fistulina off into its own order at one point, the Fistulinales is as I mentioned the structure of the pores

in Polyporus, and most other polypores, imagine a smooth surface that is then attacked by a pin and so has numerous holes (pores) created in it - hence the typical hymenial structure

Fistulina is structured more like a bundle of macaroni - the pores are individual tubes- pull (not cut) one apart from top to bottom and you can see this structure well - the name Fistulina derives from the Latin for a pipe - an astute observation by the man who erected the genus - the great French (and you'll not get me using that epithet too often!) botanist Bulliard Jean Baptiste François Pierre Bulliard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

of course a 'fistula' is a very unpleasant affliction of the human anatomy - but let's not go there

as I have decided (at the last moment) to go to Clumber on the Saturday* those who resent my leading mycologists to the "dark side" (usually the most interesting side actually - just look at Milton's "Paradise Lost" . . .) will have the opportunity to do their worst

accordingly, I would just like to say - at least drag my bloodied corpse over the border into Yorkshire for decomposition . . .

thanks

over and out

Chris

* PS anyone prepared to give me a lift from Worksop station at 10.15 on the Saturday would earn my lifelong gratitude . . . .