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.

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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.