Phellinus gilvus (Schweinitz) Patouillard
Ess. Tax. Hym., p. 97. 1900.

Photo: Young sporocarps

Common Name: none

• Sporocarp

  Fruiting body annual to perennial, sessile, 5-15 cm broad, 1.5-3.0 thick, more or less fan-shaped, often forming overlapping shelves; margin when young, yellowish to yellow-brown, pubescent, elsewhere the cap surface rusty-brown to dark-brown, sometimes zonate, tending to be glabrous, but often bumpy or concentrically furrowed; flesh tough, zonate, yellow to ochraceous brown, darkening in KOH.

• Hymenophore

  Pores 5-7 per mm, circular, mouths rusty-brown, darkening in KOH; tubes up to 0.7 cm long, if perennial, multi-seried.

• Spores

  Spores 4.5-5 x 3-3.5 µm, oval to elliptical, smooth, nonamyloid; spores white in deposit.

• Habitat

  In small groups or overlapping tiers on dead hardwoods; found year-round, new fruiting bodies and fresh growth appearing after the fall rains.

• Edibility

  Too tough to be eaten.

• Comments

  Phellinus gilvus is our most common conk on oaks (Quercus) and tanbark oak (Lithocarpus densiforus). Its preference for hardwoods plus a distinctive yellowish-brown pubescent growing margin with contrasting, furrowed to bumpy, brown cap, and rusty-brown pore surface, make it fairly easy to identify.

• References

  Gilbertson, R.L. & Ryvarden, L. (1987). North American Polypores, vol. 2. Fungiflora: Oslo, Norway. 452 p.
  Larsen, M.J. & Cobb-Poulle, L.A. (1990). Phellinus (Hymenochaetaceae) -- A Survey of World Taxa. Fungiflora: Oslo, Norway. 206 p.
  Overholts, L.O. (1967). The Polyporaceae of the United States, Alaska, and Canada. University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, MN. 466 p.

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • Fred Stevens: Phellinus gilvus (CP)
  • Nathan Wilson: Phellinus gilvus (CP)
  • Michael Wood: Phellinus gilvus (CP)
  • Michael Wood: Phellinus gilvus (CP) -- old sporocarps
  • Basidiomycetes of the Greater Antilles: Phellinus gilvus (CP)
  • Mushroom Observer: Phellinus gilvus (CP)
  • Arora (1986): p. 582 (D)
  • Gilbertson & Ryvarden (1987): p. 571 (D), p. 572 (I)
  • Lincoff: p.475 (D), plate 517 (CP)
  
  

  (D=Description; I=Illustration; P=Photo; CP=Color Photo)