Bjerkandera fumosa


Bjerkandera fumosa, the big smoky bracket, is a species of poroid fungus in the family Phanerochaetaceae.

Taxonomy

It was first described to science as Boletus fumosus by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in 1801. Petter Adolf Karsten transferred the species to the genus Bjerkandera in 1879.

Description

The form of Bjerkandera fumosa fruit bodies ranges from effused-reflexed or cap-like, but attached directly to the substrate without a stipe. These caps can be solitary or closely overlapping, and are often fused with neighbouring caps. The caps typically measure wide by wide, and a buff-coloured upper surface with a texture ranging from finely hairy to smooth. The pores on the cap underside are circular to angular, numbering 2–5 per millimetre.
Bjerkandera fumosa has a monomitic hyphal system, containing only generative hyphae. The basidia are club-shaped, measuring 20–22 μm. Spores have the shape of short cylinders, and measure 5.5–7 by 2.5–3.5 μm. They are smooth, hyaline, and do not react with Melzer's reagent.

Habitat and distribution

Bjerkandera fumosa causes a white rot in various hardwood species. It has a circumboreal distribution in the Northern Hemisphere.