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Major Groups > Polypores > Trametes elegans
Trametes elegans
[ Basidiomycetes > Polyporales > Polyporaceae > Trametes . . . ]
by Michael Kuo
This polypore is thoroughly confused. It can't make up its mind
what kind of pore surface it wants to have: one with normal
looking, angular to roundish pores, or one with pores that are
"daedaloid" or nearly "lamellate," to use the official terms in
Mycologese that mean "mazelike" and "gilllike," respectively. In
fact you are likely to find all three conditions represented on the
same mushroomwhich turns out to help, rather than hinder, the
identification process.
Other identifying features of Trametes elegans include its tough
white flesh; its whitish cap, which is lumpy towards the point of
attachment and smoother toward the margin; and its ecological
role, serving to decompose the deadwood of hardwoods in
eastern North America, south of the Great Lakes. A frequently
encountered pale version of Daedaleopsis confragosa is very
similar in appearance, but has a more thoroughly mazelike pore
surface that bruises reddish.
Description:
Ecology: Saprobic on the deadwood of hardwoods; annual or
occasionally perennial; causing a white rot of the sapwood;
growing alone or gregariously on logs and stumps; spring through
fall; widely distributed in eastern North America from the Great
Lakes southward (although I have found something very similar
to Trametes elegans in northern Michigan).
Cap: Up to 35 cm across and 3 cm thick; semicircular, irregularly
bracketshaped, or kidneyshaped; flattenedconvex; lumpy near
the point of attachment, smoother toward the thin margin; often
with concentric zones of texture; whitish to buff; sometimes
becoming darker with age, especially near the point of
attachment or along the margin.
Pore Surface: Whitish; variable, ranging from poroid with round to
angular pores (12 per mm), to mazelike, with slots up to 2 mm
wide, to gilllike (often with all three of these conditions present);
tubes or gills up to 6 mm deep; not bruising or bruising yellowish
in some collections.
Stem: Usually absent, but occasionally present as a stubby
lateral structure.
Flesh: Whitish; tough and corky.
Chemical Reactions: KOH yellow on flesh.
Spore Print: White.
Microscopic Features: Spores 57 x 23 µ; smooth; cylindric to
longelliptic; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid Cystidia absent. Hyphal
KOH
system trimitic.
Daedalea ambigua and Daedaleopsis ambigua are synonyms
and it is a shame that the species epithet ambigua, which
communicates the ambiguous pore surface so efficiently, had to
be dropped in order to comply with the rules for naming species.
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3/13/2017 Trametes elegans (MushroomExpert.Com)
REFERENCES: (Sprengel, 1820) Fries, 1838. (Fries, 1821; Saccardo, 1888;
Overholts, 1953; Gilbertson & Ryvarden, 1987.) Herb. Kuo 07120302, 08280403,
10260402, 10290401, 10310401, 09190606, 04280704.
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Cite this page as:
Kuo, M. (2005, March). Trametes elegans. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site:
http://www.mushroomexpert.com/trametes_elegans.html
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