Major Groups > Polypores > Stemmed, Pale-Fleshed > Microporellus dealbatus

MushroomExpert.Com

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.


 

Microporellus dealbatus

Microporellus dealbatus

Microporellus dealbatus

Microporellus dealbatus
Spores

Microporellus dealbatus
Dextrinoid skeletal hyphae



© MushroomExpert.Com




Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2020, January). Microporellus dealbatus. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/microporellus_dealbatus.html