Fuscoporia gilva
Mycologia 94(6): 1013. 2002.
Common Name: none
Synonym: Phellinus gilvus (Schwein.) Patouillard
Fruiting body annual to perennial, sessile, 5-15 cm broad, 1.5-3.0 thick, more or less fan-shaped, often forming overlapping shelves; margin when young, yellowish to yellow-brown, pubescent, elsewhere the cap surface rusty-brown to dark-brown, sometimes zonate, tending to be glabrous, but often bumpy or concentrically furrowed; flesh tough, zonate, yellow to ochraceous brown, darkening in KOH.
Pores 5-7 per mm, circular, mouths rusty-brown, darkening in KOH; tubes up to 0.7 cm long, if perennial, multi-seried.
Spores 4.5-5 x 3-3.5 µm, oval to elliptical, smooth, nonamyloid; spores white in deposit.
In small groups or overlapping tiers on dead hardwoods; found year-round, new fruiting bodies and fresh growth appearing after the fall rains.
Too tough to be eaten.
Fuscoporia gilva is our most common conk on oaks (Quercus) and tanbark oak (Lithocarpus densiforus). Its preference for hardwoods plus a distinctive yellowish-brown pubescent growing margin with contrasting, furrowed to bumpy, brown cap, and rusty-brown pore surface, make it fairly easy to identify.
Arora, D. (1986). Mushrooms Demystified. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 959 p.
Bernicchia, A. & Gorjón, S.P. (2020). Polypores of the Mediterranean Region. Romar: Segrate, Italy. 903 p.
Bessette, A.E., Smith, D.G. & Bessette, A.R. (2021). Polypores and Similar Fungi of Eastern and Central North America. University of Texas Press: Austin, TX. 430 p.
Desjardin, D.E., Wood, M.G. & Stevens, F.A. (2015). California Mushrooms: The Comprehensive Identification Guide. Timber Press: Portland, OR. 560 p.
Ellis, M.B. & Ellis, J.P. (1990). Fungi without Gills (Hymenomycetes and Gasteromycetes). Chapman and Hall: London, England. 329 p.
Gilbertson, R.L. & Ryvarden, L. (1987). North American Polypores, vol. 2. Fungiflora: Oslo, Norway. 452 p. (PDF)
Ginns, J. (2017). Polypores of British Columbia (Fungi: Basidiomycota). British Columbia: Victoria, BC. 260 p. (PDF)
Larsen, M.J. & Cobb-Poulle, L.A. (1990). Phellinus (Hymenochaetaceae) -- A Survey of World Taxa. Fungiflora: Oslo, Norway. 206 p.
Overholts, L.O. (1953). The Polyporaceae of the United States, Alaska, and Canada. University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, MN. 466 p. (PDF)
Siegel, N. & Schwarz, C. (2016). Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 601 p.
Wagner, T. & Fischer, M. (2002). Proceedings towards a natural classification of the worldwide taxa Phellinus s.l. and Inonotus s.l., and phylogenetic relationships of allied genera. Mycologia 94(6): 998-1016.
