I found this on our property – It’s maybe 8-12" across and about 8 ft off the ground. It’s growing over or out of an old, not-recently-used bird cavity. Just wondering what it is, as I’ve never seen anything like it. I occasionally have a look at the old bird cavity in hopes of some signs of use, and I probably last looked at it several months ago.
Mostly just looking for some sort of ID.
What an odd looking mushroom, Diane. I have no clue, but I did look it up on iNaturalist, they suggested it might be a Pine Bracket (porodaedalea pini), whatever that is. I’m guessing @Kris_Smith will have a better idea. Gotta love all that texture and what a shape.
I have an idea what it is…possibly a red-belted polypore, but I’ll have a proper look tomorrow with books and everything. Granted, my books are all for the eastern half of the country, but it could be close.
Whatever it is, it has a nice smile anyway. I’ve not seen anything like it. Just love the texture and tones of the tree trunk. Cheers.
Thanks, @linda_mellor, @Kris_Smith and @Phil_G. I thought to ask an acquaintance who works with the California Academy of Science, and he says its a shelf fungus. He didn’t seem to find it particularly exciting so maybe not that rare or interesting.
Eeek, sorry for spacing out on this. Shelf fungi are polypores and most are not that rare, but often can be interesting. Especially if you like decomposers. The whole reason we have fossil fuels from the Carboniferous period is because fungi hadn’t evolved yet. So all those billions of trees became pure carbon rather than be decomposed because nothing could, and currently nothing else can. If fungi hadn’t evolved, probably not much else would have as well since the surface of the earth would basically be one endless woodpile.
Ok. So, back to the mushroom. As I thought it’s probably this -
Aka Red-belted fungus - a perennial polypore meaning it adds to itself yearly at the margin. Commonly fruits on dead or dying trees, but occasionally will fruit on a living tree and introduce rot which ultimately kills the tree. Young specimens often produce a resin-like liquid in little drops all over the underside. I recently shot several specimens of Resinous Polypore which looks a lot like this. Some were actively making resin while others weren’t. Neat stuff.
Wow – I had no idea about fungi not existing when the carbon deposits were formed! Thanks for that information!!
I’m sure this thing wasn’t there 6 months ago. I wonder if it’s going to kill the tree? It and its neighbors are not very healthy, having been through two fires in the last 50 years. Several large ones nearby have died and fallen over in the last 10-20 years.
It may be a young one, hard to tell. If it’s already there I’m not sure there’s a point to remove it since the fungi has already been introduced and this is merely the fruiting body. Just how nature recycles.
I didn’t know that about fungi either until I attended Fungi Fest this year at the Kemp Agricultural Station. One of the mycologists is really into decomposers and told the story of their evolution and how we’re not buried in dead trees now. Something had to be done! But also that kind of carbon deposit is flat impossible now because of fungi.
Time’s Arrow… (Eddington)
