Blushing Bracket(Daedaleopsis confragosa)
Birch Polypore(Piptoporus betulinus)
Gilled Bracket(Lenzites betulina)
I am going to unpack the nature basket I referred to in Friday's post to let you see how the items inside lend themselves to close-up investigation. You can see that each one of these bracket fungi is a work of art in its own right (especially that lovely gilled bracket), and they are not even upright in the photos! I've turned them upside down to contrast the spore-producing undersides.
All the bracket fungi make spores in tubes on their undersides. The spores emerge from the tubes through pores. The pores are of four types: circular, angular, elongate, or maze-like.
Unfortunately I don't have an example of each in my basket right now, but you look at the first one, a blushing bracket, you can see it's pores do resemble a maze, with all its twists and turns and blocked passages.
The birch polypore has a smooth looking underside. Its pores are so small you'd need a magnifying glass to see them. They are most likely circular. The gilled bracket is called gilled, because it resembles the underside of many gilled mushrooms that grow on the forest floor. However, it had pores like the other bracket fungi. The walls between the pores aged and broke down. What's left looks much like gills.
You may have noticed that two of our mushrooms have similar words in their scientific names: betulina and betulinus. Betulina refers to birch trees, and both birch polypore and gilled bracket are found growing on birch trees. In fact, my specimen of a gilled bracket still has remnants of birch bark on its stalk.
Even if you don't know the terms for what you find, identifying the differences between otherwise similar species is the first step to understanding. Take a close look at the specimens you bring indoors as you while away the worst of winter with nature study.
All the bracket fungi make spores in tubes on their undersides. The spores emerge from the tubes through pores. The pores are of four types: circular, angular, elongate, or maze-like.
Unfortunately I don't have an example of each in my basket right now, but you look at the first one, a blushing bracket, you can see it's pores do resemble a maze, with all its twists and turns and blocked passages.
The birch polypore has a smooth looking underside. Its pores are so small you'd need a magnifying glass to see them. They are most likely circular. The gilled bracket is called gilled, because it resembles the underside of many gilled mushrooms that grow on the forest floor. However, it had pores like the other bracket fungi. The walls between the pores aged and broke down. What's left looks much like gills.
You may have noticed that two of our mushrooms have similar words in their scientific names: betulina and betulinus. Betulina refers to birch trees, and both birch polypore and gilled bracket are found growing on birch trees. In fact, my specimen of a gilled bracket still has remnants of birch bark on its stalk.
Even if you don't know the terms for what you find, identifying the differences between otherwise similar species is the first step to understanding. Take a close look at the specimens you bring indoors as you while away the worst of winter with nature study.
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