Ganoderma? Please help ID

[nehpets]

Hi,

This is my first post, so apologies if I've screwed up in any way (which is quite likely given the immense difficulty I have had uploading the photos and posting the thread).

I saw quite a few of these growing near to or on trees in a deciduous wood in Essex. I didn't see any trees that had more than one of these mushrooms growing on them. The mushrooms are hard, shiny, polyporous and have an intense and rather unusual smell. The largest example I saw was about six or seven centimetres in width. All of them were growing from stems rather than directly out of the wood. The caps were quite shiny and generally elliptical although some of the caps were quite crimped and variegated. I assume they are some kind of ganoderma, although thats a particularly uneducated guess. Sorry the photos are a little blurry, I can take some more if needed.

[flaxton]

Welcome to WAB. Its great to see a first post that is not asking "can I eat this". Wonderful find. This is Ganoderma lucidum. There is a very similar species called G carnosum which grows on conifer but as this is on deciduous trees. To find one is good to find a few is just greedy

Mal

[fairplay]

I only just spotted this post.

If you are really impressed by this impressive looking fungus and want to keep it, first place it in the freezer for say, 3 weeks, to kill any tiny creepy crawly's in side, then place it in an airing cupboard for a few weeks to thoroughly dry it.

My early samples turned to dust because I did not do the above.

Neil.

[nehpets]

Mal: thanks a lot for the welcome and for taking the time to post the identification, I've just read the wikipedia article on ganoderma lucidum and I'm amazed that I was lucky enough to find one, let alone several. In retrospect I wish I'd skipped the walk to the woods and bought a lottery ticket instead.

Neil: thanks for the advice, I do very much want to hold on to it, so I'll do as you say - out of interest, would freezing only kill the insects or would it damage any part of the structure or chemical content of the mushroom as well? I'll soon be visiting a friend who knows a chemist/amateur michologist and I was hoping I might be able to get him to have a closer look at it.

One final naive question, given that this fungus isn't particularly common I guess I probably shouldn't have taken one (although as I say, there were several there) - is it worth my taking any spores released from it back to the woods?

Thanks again,

Stephen

[flaxton]

Originally Posted by nehpets

One final naive question, given that this fungus isn't particularly common I guess I probably shouldn't have taken one (although as I say, there were several there) - is it worth my taking any spores released from it back to the woods?

Thanks again,

Stephen

Stephen
The unusual fingi you now have in your possesion is like picking up (or plucking) an apple off a tree. It means that the number of pips/spores for the next generation will be slightly lower than it might have been but it will almost certainly have released lots before you got to it. As you also said there were other specimens about, which is in itself unusual, so they should provide lots of spores for the future. The majority of this organism is within the tree already so you have not damaged it or its ability to produce another specimen for next year so keep an eye out.

Mal