Major Groups > Crust Fungi > Phlebia coccineofulva

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Phlebia coccineofulva

[ Basidiomycota > Polyporales > Meruliaceae > Phlebia . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

This striking crust fungus features brilliant red colors when fresh, but over time darkens to a much less thrilling reddish brown. It can be found spreading across the dead logs of hardwoods throughout North America--but it is more commonly encountered in the upper Midwest and in the northeast. The surface of Phlebia coccineofulva is hardened, unlike the softer surfaces of other well-known species of Phlebia. Under the microscope, it features tiny ellipsoid spores and amazing cystidia that become encrusted with crystalloid material.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic; spreading in patches across the decorticated deadwood of oaks and other hardwoods; causing a white rot; annual; summer and fall (and over winter in warm climates); widely distributed in North America but much more common in the upper Midwest and the northeast. The illustrated and described collections are from Pennsylvania and Québec.

Fruiting Body: A spreading patch up to 20 or more cm across; surface hardened, wrinkled and bumpy, dry, at first very bright scarlet to scarlet orange, darkening with time to brownish red and eventually reddish brown; secondary surface (visible at the edges of fresh, growing specimens) yellow, finely hairy.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Microscopic Features: Spores 3.5-5 x 2-3 µ; ellipsoid to sublacrymoid; smooth; hyaline to golden in KOH; inamyloid. Basidia 4-sterigmate. Cystidia abundant; 35-65 x 5-12.5 µ; fusiform; thick-walled; the upper half thickly encrusted with golden, refractive material. Hyphal system monomitic; hyphae 2-3 µ wide, thin-walled, hyaline to golden; poorly reviving in KOH. Clamp connections present.

REFERENCES: Schweinitz, 1832. (Burt, 1925; Cooke, 1956 ["atkinsoniana"]; Maekawa, 1993.) Herb. Kuo 09191502.

 

Phlebia coccineofulva

Phlebia coccineofulva

Phlebia coccineofulva

Phlebia coccineofulva
Spores

Phlebia coccineofulva
Cystidia



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Kuo, M. (2015, December). Phlebia coccineofulva. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/phlebia_coccineofulva.html