Fungi

Dryads Saddle Polyporus squamosus

Height up to 8cm

Width up to 30cm

Cap Browny yellow with darker scales. White to cream underside.

Stem Unusually for a bracken fungus it has a stem which is grey to black.

Grows on trees both dead as a saprophyte and live as a parasite.

It produces a white string like rot which is detrimental to live trees. Commonly found on elms.

Photographed in south-eastern West Virginia near Union, attached to the base of a dead tree, the 'shelves' are about 7" across.

Included here as this common species is also native to the UK.

Photograph by Rich Siebold

Beefsteak Fungus Fistulina hepatica

Height up to 8cm

Width up to 30cm

The beefsteak fungus is usually found growing on oaks and sweet chestnuts during July and October. The oaks that they grow on, are much prized by furniture makers. The fungus affects the colouring producing a rich dark wood.

A distinctive bracket fungus, it is tongue shaped hence its alternative common name ox tongue.

The flesh has a meat like colour, a jelly texture and often oozes a blood coloured juice.

The spore bearing tubes of the beefsteak fungus have clearly separated tubes, which can be manually prised apart.