Major Groups > Polypores > Stemmed, Pale-Fleshed > Microporellus dealbatus |
Microporellus dealbatus [ Basidiomycota > Polyporales > Polyporaceae > Microporellus . . . ] by Michael Kuo This funky little polypore grows from buried wood, so it appears to be terrestrial. It features a thin, rigid, often off-center cap with concentric zones of pale brownish shades and a proportionally long, narrow stem that lifts the cap, periscope-like, above leaf litter. Microporellus dealbatus is distributed from roughly North Carolina to South America. Polyporus varius is similar in appearance but grows on wood above the ground and features a blackening stem; Polyporus melanopus grows terrestrially but has a black, velvety, rooting stem. Microporellus obovatus grows directly from wood above ground and, under the microscope, has non-dextrinoid skeletal hyphae. In the tropics several species are similar and are best separated with microscopic examination; see Motato-Vásquez & de Mello Gugliotta (2016). Description: Ecology: Saprobic; growing terrestrially, alone or gregariously, from buried roots of hardwoods; annual; causing a white rot; found in summer and fall in temperate areas and year-round in tropical and subtropical areas; distributed in tropical and subtropical North America, especially from Texas to North Carolina and Florida; also present in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. The illustrated and described collection is from North Carolina. Cap: 1.5–6 cm across; circular to somewhat irregular in outline; planoconvex or nearly flat; a little fuzzy when young but soon bald; dry; with faint concentric zones of tan, brownish, and whitish; thin and rigid. Pore Surface: Running down the stem; whitish to creamy; about 8 pores per mm; tubes 2–3 mm deep. Stem: Central or a little off-center; 4–6 cm long; 2–7 mm thick; more or less equal; bald; whitish near apex, pale yellowish brown centrally, and brown below; tough. Flesh: Thin; tough; white; unchanging when sliced. Odor: Not distinctive. Chemical Reactions: KOH negative to yellowish on flesh. Microscopic Features: Spores 4–5 x 3–3.5 µm; ellipsoid to sublacrymoid; smooth; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid. Hymenial cystidia not found, but reported in literature as widely lageniform with encrusted apices. Setae not found. Hyphal system dimitic; generative hyphae 2–4 µm wide, smooth, thin-walled, hyaline in KOH, with clamp connections; skeletal hyphae 4–6 µm wide, walls 1–2 µm thick, dextrinoid. REFERENCES: (Junghung, 1838) Ryvarden, 1972. (Overholts, 1953; David & Rajchenberg, 1985; Gilbertson & Ryvarden, 1987; Phillips, 1991/2005; Bessette et al., 2007; Medeiros & Ryvarden, 2011; Motato-Vásquez & de Mello Gugliotta, 2016.) Herb. Kuo 08101903. This site contains no information about the edibility or toxicity of mushrooms. |
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Cite this page as: Kuo, M. (2020, January). Microporellus dealbatus. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/microporellus_dealbatus.html |