Major Groups > Polypores > Hexagonia hydnoides

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Hexagonia hydnoides

[ Basidiomycota > Polyporales > Polyporaceae > Hapalopilus . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

Here is a pretty unmistakeable polypore from the tropics, featuring a thin cap densely covered with dark brown to almost black hairs. It appears not to be very picky about what kind of deadwood it inhabits, as long as the tree was not a conifer. The range of Hexagonia hydnoides extends from the southern United States through South America. Although U.S. reports usually come from the Gulf Coast states, the collection featured here is from southern Missouri.

Thanks to Chris Crabtree for collecting, documenting, and preserving Hexagonia hydnoides for study; his collection is deposited in The Herbarium of Michael Kuo.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone or gregariously on the deadwood of hardwoods; causing a white rot; appearing year-round; widely distributed from the southern United States through South America. The illustrated and described collection is from southern Missouri.

Cap: 5–10 cm across; 4–7 cm deep; thin; irregularly semicircular; convex or nearly flat; densely hairy with dark brown to black hairs (but reportedly sometimes losing the hairs and becoming more or less bald with old age); faintly zoned, especially toward the margin; surface underneath hairs brown to dark brown.

Pore Surface: Brown to dark brown; not bruising; with 3–4 slightly angular pores per mm; tubes 2–6 mm deep.

Stem: Absent.

Flesh: Rusty brown; not changing when sliced.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH black on flesh and tubes.

Spore Print: Not documented.

Microscopic Features: Spores not found in the collection examined; reported by Gilbertson & Ryvarden (1986) as "cylindrical, hyaline and thin-walled, 11–14.5 x 3.5–5 µm." Setae, cystidia not found. Hyphal system trimitic. Clamp connections present in generative hyphae.


REFERENCES: (Swartz, 1788) M. Fidalgo, 1968. (Overholts, 1953; Gilbertson & Ryvarden, 1986; Bessette et al., 2007; Justo et al., 2017; Elliott & Stephenson, 2018.) Herb. Kuo 03201701.


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Hexagonia hydnoides
KOH

Hexagonia hydnoides
Pores, dried specimen; scale = 1 mm

Hexagonia hydnoides
KOH



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Kuo, M. (2019, January). Hexagonia hydnoides. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/hexagonia_hydnoides.html