Birch polypore or Blushing bracket
Birch polypore and Blushing bracket are similar species that can be mixed up while foraging. The main visible difference: cap surface: Birch polypore — smooth, Blushing bracket — fibrous, cracked.
Not sure? Identify by photoSide by side
| Characteristic | Birch polypore | Blushing bracket |
|---|---|---|
| Season | Birch polypore: Summer, Autumn, Winter | Blushing bracket: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter |
| Use | Birch polypore: Medicinal, Not eaten | Blushing bracket: Not eaten |
| Cap colour | Birch polypore: White, Cream, Brown | Blushing bracket: Brown, Rusty, Cream |
| Cap shape | Birch polypore: Irregular | Blushing bracket: Flat, Irregular |
| Cap surface | Birch polypore: Smooth | Blushing bracket: Fibrous, Cracked |
| Taste | Birch polypore: Bitter | Blushing bracket: — |
| Substrate | Birch polypore: On wood, Dead wood, Living tree | Blushing bracket: Dead wood, On wood |
| Nutrition type | Birch polypore: Parasite | Blushing bracket: Saprotroph, Parasite |
| Partner trees | Birch polypore: Birch | Blushing bracket: Willow, Alder, Birch, Beech, Hornbeam |
Same in both: edibility class, size, smell, flesh colour change, hymenophore, stem, growth habit.
When and where they meet
Together: August–November
Their seasons overlap: August–November. At that time you can find both in the same woods. Shared habitats: deciduous forest, mixed forest.
What they look like
Cap, Hymenophore, Stem, Flesh, Smell
Cap
Birch polypore
The fruiting body is hoof-shaped or hemispherical and attached to the birch at the side. It measures 5–20 cm across and 3–8 cm thick. The surface is smooth, pale cream to flesh-grey or light brown, often with a thin papery crust that cracks with age. The margin is even and rounded, curving slightly downward in mature brackets.
Blushing bracket
There's no stem: the bracket is semicircular, kidney- or fan-shaped, flat or slightly convex, often with a hump where it's attached, 5 to 15 cm across, up to 20 cm, and 1 to 4 cm thick. It grows singly or in tiers, and sometimes in rosettes on top of logs.
Young brackets are whitish or leather-yellow on top, then reddish brown, brick red, greyish or blackish. The surface has concentric zones and grooves, radial wrinkles and small warts, mostly near the base. The margin is paler. Old brackets darken and can last for years.
Hymenophore
Birch polypore
The underside is made of short tubes, 0.3–0.5 cm deep, with round or oval pores, 3–5 per millimetre. They're white to cream, turning yellowish or brownish as they dry, and don't separate easily from the flesh.
Blushing bracket
The underside starts white to cream, as if frosted, then turns beige, grey-brown and dark brown. When pressed or scratched, the fresh underside blushes pink to red, then turns brown.
The pores vary a lot: round near the base, then slits and mazes, and almost gill-like towards the edge, 0.5 to 1.5 mm across. The spore print is white.
Stem
Birch polypore
There's no stem, or only a very short one fused to the tree. The bracket attaches to the birch bark at its side through a knobby outgrowth.
Blushing bracket
There's no stem: the bracket is attached to the wood by its side.
Flesh
Birch polypore
The flesh of young brackets is white, springy and soft to the touch, with a distinctive “marshmallowy” edge. With age it turns corky, hard and light. Dried, it's just like cork, and historically it was used for razor strops, for carrying embers and for mounting surgical instruments.
Blushing bracket
The flesh is corky and leathery, hard when dry, wood-coloured, pale rusty or brownish, fibrous when broken and up to 2 cm thick.
Smell
Birch polypore
The smell is faint and mushroomy; fresh brackets smell slightly pleasant, with a sourish note. The flesh tastes bitter and astringent, unpleasant, with a quinine-like aftertaste, which is one reason it's inedible.
Blushing bracket
The smell is indistinct.
Related comparisons
Sources · 16
- [1]Вікіпедія (українська)
- [2]Атлас грибів України, Зеров Д.К. (1979)
- [3]MycoBank Database
- [4]Index Fungorum
- [5]GBIF
- [6]iNaturalist Ukraine
- [7]Wikipedia (English)
- [8]Википедия (русская)
- [9]First Nature: Daedaleopsis confragosa, Blushing Bracket
- [10]First Nature: Daedalea quercina, Oak Mazegill
- [11]First Nature: Lenzites betulinus, Birch Mazegill
- [12]First Nature: Trametes gibbosa, Lumpy Bracket
- [13]Emberger G., MushroomExpert (Fungi on Wood): Daedaleopsis confragosa
- [14]Шульга В. М. Світ грибів України: Дедалеопсис бугристий (архівна копія)
- [15]Koukol O., Kotlaba F., Pouzar Z. Czech Mycology, 2014, 66(2): 107–119 (Daedaleopsis confragosa and D. tricolor), Koukol O., Kotlaba F., Pouzar Z. (2014)
- [16]GBIF: знахідки Daedaleopsis confragosa в Україні