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Go to the NZFungi website for more indepth information on Polyporus xerophyllus. Polyporus xerophyllus

Synonyms

Microporus xerophyllus
Polystictus xerophyllus

Biostatus

Present in region - Indigenous. Endemic

Images (click to enlarge)

 

Caption: Watercolour
Owner: G.M. Taylor
 

Article: Cunningham, G.H. (1948). New Zealand Polyporaceae. 3. The genus Polyporus. New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Plant Diseases Division, Bulletin 74: 39 p.
Description: Hymenophore annual, solitary, firm, coriaceous, attached by a brief lateral stem. Pileus reniform or fan-shaped, 1-2.5 cm. x 10-15 mm. x 1-1.5 mm.; surface reddish-brown, with radiating black raised striae which are somewhat scabrid or ridged on the edges, cuticle 75-100 µ thick, of densely compacted pseudoparenchyma, arranged above into a palisade with walls appreciably thickened and tinted brown; margin acute, concolorous, strongly crenate and also toothed; hymenial surface cream when fresh, drying straw colour, even, edged with a conspicuous shining black rounded sterile margin 0.5-1 mm. wide, dissepiments not toothed; stem lateral, varying from a slight disc to a body 10 mm. long, 1-3 mm. thick, solid, rugulose, black, attached to the substratum by a discoid expansion. Context 0.2-1 mm. thick, white, becoming straw colour, firm, woven; skeletal hyphae 5-6 µ thick, lumen almost obliterated, bovista type, freely branched, aseptate, staining; generative hyphae 3-5 µ thick, thin-walled, branched, septate, with clamp connections, contents staining. Pores round or angular, in section cream, to 1 mm. deep, 100-125 µ diameter, or 5-6 per mm.; dissepiments 50-100 µ thick, equal, thickened apically and delicately velutinate. Basidial type clavate, basidia clavate, 12-16 x 5-6 µ, soon collapsing. Spores ovate or elliptic-oblong, 5-7 x 3.5-4 µ, smooth, hyaline.
Habitat: Growing solitary on decaying stumps or dead branches, associated with a white rot.
Distribution: New Zealand.
Notes: Differentiated by the small size of the fan-shaped pileus, lateral stem, strongly marked radiate striae of the surface, palisade pseudoparenchymatous cuticle, and cream coloured hymenium. In one specimen spores are definitely obovate, but in others they are both obovate and elliptic-oblong.