LITTLE NEST POLYPORE
Trametes conchifer
POLYPORE FAMILY (Polyporaceae)
The cap of this mushroom is about ½-2 inches wide and it is very thin. It is fan shaped, white or zoned with brown, smooth, leathery, arising from a cup at the base. The undersurface is smooth or bears tubes. The cup is white or zoned with brown, smooth or bearing tubes on the undersurface. There is no stalk or a short sideways one.
This mushroom fruits in groups on dead, hardwood branches especially elm, during late summer and fall. Old fruiting bodies are often seen during other seasons. It has been seen only once in Fontenelle Forest, in Mormon Hollow.
The cups may be found by themselves. They are sterile and may be mistaken for a cup fungus or a bird’s nest fungus. If just the shelves are present, this fungus is difficult to identify. The combination of characteristics is distinctive for its identification. The cups contain spores that are splashed to distant places by raindrops.
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