Lumpy Bracket

Lumpy Bracket, Trametes gibbosa.  The Knoll, Hayes, 18 January 2012.

This is apparently quite a common fungus, but it had me stumped, just because there are so many different fungi in the books that I missed it;  and the actual specimens hardly ever look exactly like the books' photos. This one is growing on the top of a Beech stump in one of my local parks.

The scientific name comes from a Latin word meaning humped or hunched, which you can also see in the word gibbous, applied to the moon when it is more than half full. And it often does have that big lumpy hump in the middle. The green shade is where algae have grown on the surface, which is hairy when it is young, giving purchase for the algae to grow.

It is tough, with a texture like stiff rubber.

Lumpy Bracket, Trametes gibbosa, showing the underside.  The Knoll, Hayes, 18 January 2012.

I was able to pull up the edge like this, but it took some force, and it snapped back into place when I let it go. The pores are large and conspicuous, and indeed this is the same genus as the Turkeytail, which has visible pores, and is not a Ganoderma, which are large brackets similar to this in general appearance but with what looks to the eye like a plain white underside.

In places, the pores are visible at the top of the fungus. You can see some on the left of the first photo. I think this must be where slugs or snails have browsed away the top layers.

Lumpy Bracket, Trametes gibbosa.  Cross-section.  The Knoll, Hayes, 26 January 2012.

I went back on another day with a very sharp knife and cut out this wedge. You can see that the pores are nowhere near the top on the untouched growth.