Fomitopsis pinicola

Fomitopsis pinicola, in English sometimes known as Red Banded Polypore, is a polypore mushroom of the genus Fomitopsis. The species is common throughout the temperate Northern hemisphere. An alternative binomial name is Fomes pinicola.

Additional recommended knowledge

Daily Visual Balance Check

Essential Laboratory Skills Guide

Weighing the right way

Characteristics

Cap hoof-shaped or triangular, hard and tough texture, up to 30-40 x 25 x 10 cm. Surface is more or less smooth, at first orange-yellow with a white margin, later dark reddish to brown and then frequently with orange margin. Pore surface pale yellow to leather-brown, 3-4 pores per mm. Grows on live and dead coniferous or (less common) deciduous trees.

The fruiting body of Fomitopsis pinicola is called the conk. It is a woody, pileate fruiting body with pores lined with basidia on its underside. As in other polypores, the fruiting body is perennial with a new layer of pores produced each year on the bottom of the old pores.

This mushroom is inedible due to its woody texture.

References

• "Danske storsvampe. Basidiesvampe" [a key to Danish basidiomycetes] J.H. Petersen and J. Vesterholt eds. Gyldendal. Viborg, Denmark, 1990. ISBN 87-01-09932-9
• Entry of Fomitopsis pinicola at Fungal Databases, Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory Nomenclature Database, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service.