Bondarzewia berkeleyi

[ Basidiomycetes > Russulales > Bondarzewiaceae > Bondarzewia . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

MushroomExpert.Com contributor Bob Zordani and I were collecting in Lincoln Trail State Park, in Clark County, Illinois. Bob was merrily filling bags with Cantharellus lateritius, dreaming of a steak-and-chanterelle dinner, and I was on hands and knees photographing Marasmius siccus when ranger Mike Sanders pulled over--probably to make sure we weren't up to no good, though he was kind enough not to say so. Sometimes I forget what oddballs we must look like to people who don't spend their lives crawling around the woods for mushrooms!

After a brief conversation in which Mr. Sanders must have decided we were more or less harmless, he mentioned a "great big mushroom" he had seen several years in a row. He took us down the road to see it, and our eyes nearly popped out of our heads! Bondarzewia berkeleyi is an amazing polypore that fruits at the bases of hardwoods in eastern North America--amazing not only in its size (one of the clusters we saw was nearly two feet wide!), but also in its spores, which are round and ornamented with spines (see illustration)--like the spores in Russula or Lactarius, and not at all like the smooth, elliptical or cylindrical spores of most polypores. Because of the spores, some taxonomists over the years have suggested there might be a relationship between Bondarzewia and the Russula/Lactarius family. Amazingly, recent genetic research has borne out this proposition; DNA testing has revealed Bondarzewia to belong in the Russulales!

Bondarzewia berkeleyi can be recognized without microscopic examination of spores, however. Distinguishing macrofeatures include the cream-colored (and non-bruising) fleshy caps, which arise from a gnarly, yellowish brown stem; and the white, non-bruising pore surface, which descends the stem. In the west, it is replaced by Bondarzewia montana, which favors conifers and has a brown cap.

Bondarzewia berkeleyi is listed as edible in field guides. The specimens we found were not very appetizing-looking, and were rather tough. But Gary Lincoff (1992) says the species, when young, "looks like a huge hand with chunky fingers reaching out of the ground" (448). Perhaps, like many polypores, Bondarzewia berkeleyi would be more palatable when young and tender--though Lincoff's description alone would keep it off of my table!

Description:

Ecology: Parasitic on hardwoods (especially oaks and chestnuts); causing a white stringy butt rot (see comments, below right); also apparently saprobic on dead wood; growing alone or gregariously at the bases of trees; summer and fall; widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains. Bondarzewia berkeleyi causes butt rot in the host tree's heartwood. "The wood is first whitened (delignified), and eventually is completely broken down, so that hollow butts result, although before this stage the rot is easily recognized by the persistent medulary rays. These persistent rays interwoven with the stringy remnants have given the name 'string and ray rot' to the decay" (Overholts, 1953; p. 240).

Fruiting Body: 25-80 cm across (!); consisting of one to five caps arising from a single, gnarly stem.

Individual Caps: 6-25 cm across; kidney-shaped or irregular in outline; loosely convex, flat, or with a central depression; dry; velvety or leathery, sometimes radially wrinkled (but never scaly) or with vague, semi-concentric zones of texture or color; whitish to cream colored or pale tan; not bruising.

Pore Surface: Descending the stem; whitish; not bruising; pores angular, .5-2 mm across; tubes to 1 cm deep.

Stem: 4-10 cm long; 3-5 cm wide; central or somewhat off-center; yellowish to pale brownish; dry; tough.

Flesh: White; thick; not discoloring or bruising.

Chemical Reactions: Not recorded in the literature. In my collection, the cap was pale reddish orange with KOH, and the flesh was yellowish.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 6-8 µ; round or nearly so; amyloid; ornamented with many spines reaching lengths of 1 µ or longer.

Polyporus berkeleyi is a former name.

REFERENCES: (Fries, 1851) Bond. & Singer, 1941. (Overholts, 1953; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1981; Arora, 1986; Gilbertson & Ryvarden, 1986; Phillips, 1991/2005; Lincoff, 1992; Barron, 1999; Roody, 2003.) Herb. Kuo 08040305.

Further Online Information:

Bondarzewia berkeleyi at Roger's Mushrooms.

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2004, November). Bondarzewia berkeleyi. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/bondarzewia_berkeleyi.html