Upholstered Fire Sponge, Elbow Patch Fungus

Fomitiporia punctata

The cushion-shaped to long-beaded fruiting bodies are about 10 to 40 cm long, 4 to 8 cm wide and 0.5 to 2.5 cm thick, depending on the branch width. They usually grow in the longitudinal direction of the infested branches and trunks. The edge of the substrate is tight and firm, so that the fruiting bodies are difficult to remove. The surface is greyish brown, hazel to russet and the border is thin. A subiculum is usually hardly recognizable and in any case thinner than 1 mm. The tubes sit directly on the substrate and are 1-3 mm long. Up to ten layers of tubes can be on top of each other, usually 3 to 7. The surface of the previous layer is not completely covered by the new one so that the edge separates in color from the rest because the old pores are filled by filling hyphae and then appear gray. Often they are also colored green by algae. The roundish to elongated pores are tiny, per millimeter you will find about 5 to 6 pores. With potassium hydroxide, the meat turns almost black.
Fomitiporia punctata Fomitiporia punctata on a dead Bebb's Willow (Salix bebbiana) trunk at the edge of a shrub carr/sedge meadow. Bebb's Willow,Elbow Patch Fungus,Fall,Fomitiporia punctata,Geotagged,Salix,Salix bebbiana,United States,Upholstered Fire Sponge,willow

Naming

Fomitiporia punctata (P. Karst.) Murrill, Lloydia 10: 254 (1947)
Polyporus punctatus Fr.
Hymenomycetes europaei: 572 (1874)
Poria punctata P. Karst., Bidrag till Kännedom av Finlands Natur och Folk 37: 83 (1882)
Phellinus punctatus (P. Karst.) Pilát, Atlas des Champignons de l'Europe III: Polyporaceae: 530 (1942)
Fuscoporia punctata (P. Karst.) G. Cunn., Bulletin of the New Zealand Department of Industrial Research 73: 11 (1948)
Fomitiporella punctata (P. Karst.) Teixeira, Revista Brasileira de Botânica 15 (2): 126 (1992)
Fomitiporia tsugina Murrill, North American Flora 9 (1): 9 (1907)
Fomitiporia lloydii Murrill, North American Flora 9 (1): 10 (1907)
Fomitiporia obliquiformis Murrill, North American Flora 9 (1): 9 (1907)
=Fuscoporia juniperina Murrill, North American Flora 9 (1): 4 (1907) [MB#226402]
=Fomitiporia laminata Murrill, North American Flora 9 (1): 11 (1907) [MB#143475]
=Poria friesiana Bres., Annales Mycologici 6: 40 (1908) [MB#163206]
=Poria viticola Lázaro Ibiza, Revista de la Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas Fisicas y Naturales Madri 15: 370 (1917) [MB#200892]
Fomitiporia punctata Fomitiporia punctata on a dead Bebb's Willow (Salix bebbiana) trunk at the edge of a shrub carr/sedge meadow. Bebb's Willow,Elbow Patch Fungus,Fall,Fomitiporia punctata,Geotagged,Salix,Salix bebbiana,United States,Upholstered Fire Sponge,willow

Distribution

Occurs in New Zealand, South America (Argentina), Central America (Panama), North America (Canada, USA), Asia (Japan, North and South Korea), North Africa (Morocco) and Europe.

Habitat

The upholstered fire sponge occurs year-round at dying or dead, still standing branches or trunks. In Central Europe, its two main hosts are willow ( Salix ) and hazel ( Corylus ). It also grows on a number of other deciduous trees, albeit much less frequently. In the infested wood, the fungus causes a white rot. The upholstered fire sponge prefers sites with high humidity. One finds it therefore particularly often in river floodplain, on lake shores as well as in moorland and shrub carr (Bruchwäldern). The fruiting bodies grow on more or less vertical, on branches and trunks and always some distance from the ground. The fruiting bodies die quickly from wood lying on the ground.

Reproduction

Spores

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

https://species.nbnatlas.org/species/BMSSYS0000045522
Taxonomy
KingdomFungi
DivisionBasidiomycota
ClassAgaricomycetes
OrderHymenochaetales
FamilyHymenochaetaceae
GenusFomitiporia
SpeciesFomitiporia punctata
Photographed in
United States of America