Skip to main content

Mustard-yellow Polypore

 




The Mustard-yellow Polypore, Fuscoporia gilva, can be up to 12 cm across. The largest here was 5.5 cm. When dry, they are corky and fairly easy to break apart. The caps are usually azonate and rough. The thin margins tend to be a bit lighter in color, a reminder of their yellow past-life. The fertile surface is roughly the same color as the cap, though smoother, and the pores are very small, usually listed at 5-8 per mm. The pore tubes are 2 mm long. The flesh stained black immediately in KOH. This group was growing on a dead Red Oak, Quercus rubra. It causes a white rot. Fusca means dark brown. Gilva means pale yellow.

Polypores remain my favorite kind of mushroom, for reasons that elude me. I think even that is part of their charm. They have a mysterious, alluring quality. I feel I have something to learn from them, if I just listen closely enough.