Shape and/or Texture

Shape and texture identify more closely the specific characteristics of Annual and Perennial fruiting structures. The categories reflect characteristics of mature conks, mushrooms or fruiting on a host. Developing fruiting structures should be allowed to fully mature before selecting one of the shape and texture categories.

Annual include:

  • Brittle or crumbly
  • Tough or Leathery
  • Fleshy/Mushroom;

Brittle or Crumbly

Brittle and crumbly refer to annual fruiting structures of several ascomycete decay fungi that do not form conks or mushrooms. These fungi fruit in black, stromatic material that may be thin and adhered to wood or bark, or rounded and attached to decayed wood (Photograph 1) or finger-like and attached at the base of a tree (Photograph 2).

Photograph 1. Fruiting structure of Daldinia concentrica that will be found to be brittle and crumbly when removed from the tree.
Photograph 1. Fruiting structure of Daldinia concentrica that will be found to be brittle and crumbly when removed from the tree.
Photograph 2. Black, brittle finger like fruiting structures of the fungus Xylaria polymorpha. The white inner tissue is exposed when the fruiting structure is broken and evident in the upper center of the image.
Photograph 2. Black, brittle finger like fruiting structures of the fungus Xylaria polymorpha. The white inner tissue is exposed when the fruiting structure is broken and evident in the upper center of the image.

Tough or Leathery

Tough or leathery refers to the texture of annual conks where the fungus can usually be broken off the tree and broken or ripped in two with one’s hands. These conks may be somewhat fleshy and watery when young but typically toughen with age. They usually are bracket-like or shelf-like and can be of varying size from 1-2 inches across to 5-6 inches or more in diameter across their thickest width.

Photograph 3. Tough and leathery conks of Inonotus dryadeus.Note the older conks from previous year’s that have discolored and turned black and are now almost woody like a perennial fungus .
Photograph 3. Tough and leathery conks of Inonotus dryadeus.Note the older conks from previous year’s that have discolored and turned black and are now almost woody like a perennial fungus .
Photograph 4. Small, but still tough and leathery fruiting structures of Schizophyllum commune. Many of these fungi with small, tough, annual fruiting structures will persist into the following year but do not produce another new pore layer like the perennial fungi.
Photograph 4. Small, but still tough and leathery fruiting structures of Schizophyllum commune. Many of these fungi with small, tough, annual fruiting structures will persist into the following year but do not produce another new pore layer like the perennial fungi.

Fleshy/Mushrooms

Annual fungi can fruit as mushrooms (with gills or pores) and be more fleshy than tough and leathery. These fungi can usually be easily picked off the tree and quickly dehydrate and shrink from loss of moisture if they are picked and not protected from drying.

Photograph 5. Fleshy fronds of the sulfur shelf fungus Laetiporus sulphureus.
Photograph 5. Fleshy fronds of the sulfur shelf fungus Laetiporus sulphureus.
Photograph 6. Fleshy fruiting of Grifola frondosa.
Photograph 6. Fleshy fruiting of Grifola frondosa.

Perennial include:

  • Hoof shaped
  • Flattened
  • Black and cinder-like

Hoof shaped

Several of the perennial fungi are distinctly hoof-shaped, elongating more downward than outward as they develop and grow.

Photograph 7. Hoof-shaped perennial conk of Fomes fomentarius.
Photograph 7. Hoof-shaped perennial conk of Fomes fomentarius.

Flattened or Applanate

Many of the perennial fungi become flattened as they grow more away from the tree than downward as they develop. They may be somewhat semi-circular in shape or more elongate and bracket-shaped as they grow.

Photograph 8. Flattened, perennial conk of Phellinus fraxinophillus
Photograph 8. Flattened, perennial conk of Phellinus fraxinophillus

Black and cinder-like

Two of the perennial decay fungi only produce sterile, black, cinder-like fungal material on infected trees. These “clinker” conks do not have a visible pore layer but are perennial in that they are very woody and remain on the tree growing in size in multiple years.

Photograph 9. Black, cinder-like sterile conk of Inonotus obliquus.
Photograph 9. Black, cinder-like sterile conk of Inonotus obliquus.