Subject: Collect Phanerochaete

From: [email-masked] (Michael Foos)
Date: 10 May 1995 07:48:49 -0700

I am looking for information about how to recognize and identify
Phanerochaete when growing in natural areas.  Any references or keys to
identification would be greatly appreciated.

K. Michael Foos
Biological Science
Indiana University East
Richmond, IN 47374
(317) 973-8303
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Tom Volk)
Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 21:27:07 GMT

Hi Michael.

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Michael Foos) 
>identification would be greatly appreciated.

Specimens of Phaereochaete are difficult to identify as Phanerochaete in the 
wild, but they are fairly common.  Most are resupinate (crust) fungi that 
don't fruit out in the open.  If you want to see one you have to roll logs. 

Phanerochaete spp. range in color from white to yellow to reddish, to 
brown to bright bright orange.  The most spectacular species, IMHO, is 
Phanerochaete chrysorhiza, which has a bright orange toothed basidiome with 
an extensive network of bright orange cordons, like rhizomorphs. It is a 
fairly common species, and the cordons can be seen long before the fruiting 
body is evident.The most commonly mentioned species in the genus is 
Phanerochaete chrysosporium, which has received extensive attention because 
of its amazing lignin degrading abillity.  however, this species is not very 
common in nature and has been isolated only a relatively few times. It forms 
a completely unspectacular fruiting structure that looks like a thin white 
mold. Many of the other species have cordonic margins. All the species cause 
a white rot.

Phanerochaete is relatively easy to recognize under the microscope.  They 
are mostly simple septate, have cystidia that are usually encrusted, and 
many species have multiple clamps at an occasional septum. The basidia 
are always simple septate at the base. It's a little more complicated than 
that, but that's the Reader's Digest (tm) version. 
There is a very good monograph of the genus Phanerochaete by Hal Burdsall 
(my boss) with good keys: "A Contribution to the taxonomy of the genus ~
Phanerochaete~ (Corticiaceae, Aphyllophorales)  Mycologia Memoir 10, 165 pp. 
1985. J. Cramer Publishers.

Let me know if you need further information.
---Tom Volk, Center for Forest Mycology Research and Univ. of Wisconsin 
Botany Dept, Madison Wisconsin   <[email-masked]>

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From: [email-masked] (Jim Worrall)
Date: Fri, 12 May 1995 13:46:58 -0800

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Michael
Foos) wrote:

> Phanerochaete when growing in natural areas. 

Try:

Slysh, Anton. 1960. The Genus Peniophora.  New York State Univ. Coll. Forestry.

Eriksson and others. several years, about 7 volumes. Corticiaceae of North
Europe.

Burdsall, H. 1985.  A Contribution to the Taxonomy of the genus
Phanerochaete.  Mycologia Memoir 10.

It is not in a group easily identified without training.