Macroscopic characters | shape | Effused-reflexed or resupinate at first; pilei usually imbricate; dimidiate or laterally fused |
size | Up to 1 x 7 x 0.5 cm |
texture | Densely tomentose to hirsute; smooth or shallowly sulcate in age |
pileus | White to cream colored or pale buff |
stipe | N/A |
context | White to pale tan; soft-fibrous; up to 2 mm thick |
pore surface | White to cream |
pores | Angular; 2-3 per mm near margin; dissepiments split to form an irpiciform hymenophore |
tube layer(s) | Concolorous and continuous with context; up to 3 mm thick |
Microscopic characters | hyphal system | Dimitic; generative and skeletal hyphae |
clamp connections | None |
sterile elements | Cystidia abundant; thick-walled; heavily incrusted apically 50-110 x 5-10 um; projecting up to 40 um |
basidiospores | Oblong to cylindric; straight to slightly curved; hyaline; smooth; 5-7 x 2-3 um |
Habitat characters | substrate/host | Dead wood of numerous hardwood genera; common on tulip poplar in the southeast U.S. |
seasonality | Annual |
type of decay | White rot of dead hardwoods, rarely of conifers |
range | Common throughout the forest regions of Canada and the U.S. except for the Southwest. Cosmopolitan species. |
Notes | Strongly hydnaceous hymenophore, conspicuously incrusted cystidia, and simple-septate hyphae are diagnostic . |
References | Overholts, 1953; Gilbertson & Ryvarden, 1986. |