Trametes pubescens


It is classified as: Fungi > Basidiomycota > Basidiomycetes > Agaricomycetidae > Polyporales > Polyporaceae > Trametes > pubescens

It has a cream-colored, finely velvety cap surface. The brackets are semicircular, up to 8cm and typically 5mm deep. They are also often tiered, and adjacent caps are occasionally fused laterally; this helps to distinguish it from T. suaveoens, a larger pale bracket, that does not usually grow in overlapping tiers. Unlike the other turkey tail-like species of Trametes, the cap of T. pubescens lacks distinct contrasting zones of color and appears mostly white and grey. As they age, the brackets develop radial lines and deep furrows near the margin of the upper surface, and a yellowish tinge to the fertile underside. Older specimens often lack a velvety coating and are more difficult to identify.

The tubes are white and 4-6mm deep, terminating in white, slightly angular pores, often varying randomly in size and soemtimes merging. There are typically 3-5 pores per mm. The spores are cylindrical-shaped, smooth, 5-6×1.52.5um, and inamyloid. The spore print in white. There is no distinctive smell or taste.

It is an annual, saprobic fungus, which decomposes hardwoods. It sometimes persists through winter in southern areas, but fresh fruitbodies appear in the late summer through autumn, when they release their pores. It grows in large clusters on fallen logs, stumps, and branches. It almost never colonizes conifer wood sources. This fungus is common in central mainland Europe (rare in Britain and Ireland), but is frequently found in most parts of North America. This particular specimen was collected from Alma College’s Biological Field Station, an ecological tension zone between northern coniferous and southern deciduous forest in Michigan.

It is an agriculturally-significant fungus in that it infects peach and nectarine trees, and parasitizes them. In Japan, this fungus has reportedly been prescribed as an additional supplement to help with treatments for colon cancer, although the validity of these reports is questionable.



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