Australian Capital Territory
Canberra & Southern Tablelands
New South Wales
Canberra & Southern Tablelands
The fruit body is a polypore that grows out from wood. In shape it is often somewhat like a horse’s hoof (roughly triangular in cross-section with the lower surface horizontal, the upper sloping) and the vertical third side flush against the woody substrate), but sometimes a little flatter. It may grow to 40 centimetres in its longest dimension. When fresh, the smooth upper surface is a pale brown and the whitish to faintly yellowish underside is densely packed with tiny pores. However, often you don’t see those fresh features, since the fruit bodies are usually attacked by invertebrates fairly quickly and then numerous chew holes show themselves.
An old fruit body, if it escapes the ravages of invertebrates, is likely to develop irregular, polygonal cracking, both on the upper surface and on the underside. You then see that there is only a thin, brownish skin on the upper surface, the underlying flesh being white. In this photo (https://www.anbg.gov.au/fungi/images-captions/laetiporus-portentosus-0049.html), taken in Black Mountain ACT, the upper surface has started cracking and you can see some streaks of exposed, white flesh.
Fallen, chewed-out fruit bodies may lose all evidence of the initial form and then look like odd lumps of polystyrene, especially as this is a very low-density polypore.
This fungus is fairly common in our region, on live trees of various species but is also found on dead wood. Often it is found singly, but two or more fruit bodies may appear close together.
Look-alikes
There is probably no species with the same combination of chunkiness, size, density and chew holes. Ryvardenia cretacea, not yet recorded from out region, is somewhat similar but has a brittle, chalky texture and appears to escape being chewed and looking like polystyrene. G. Gates and D. Ratkowsky (A Field Guide to Tasmanian Fungi, 2nd. ed, 2016, page 193) say that “When overmature, it falls off the wood and becomes chalk-like lumps on the forest floor”.
Laetiporus portentosus is listed in the following regions:
Canberra & Southern Tablelands | Southern Highlands | Albury, Wodonga | South Coast | Hunter Region | Riverina Murray | Hume | Loddon Mallee | Tasmania
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Synonyms
Piptoporus eucalyptorum (Fr.) Warcup, Ecology Forests Woodlands South Australia: 131 (1986) Piptoporus portentosus (Berk.) G. Cunn., Bull. N.Z. Dept. Sci. Industr. Res., Pl. Dis. Div. 164: 106 (1965) Piptoporus eucalyptorum Piptoporus portentosusMaps
9 Mile Hill TSR Albury Alison Hone Reserve ANBG Aranda Bushland Biamanga National Park Bicentennial Park Black Mountain Bluetts Block (402, 403, 12, 11) Bodalla State Forest Boro Bournda Environment Education Centre Bournda National Park Broulee Moruya Nature Observation Area Bruce Ridge Bruce Ridge to Gossan Hill Callum Brae Campbell Park Woodland Cantor Crescent Woodland, Higgins Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park City Renewal Authority Area Cooma North Ridge Reserve Cuumbeun Nature Reserve Diuris aequalis target area Dryandra St Woodland Genoplesium plumosum target area Genoplesium vernale target area Gorman Road Bush Reserve, Goulburn Gossan Hill Goulburn Mulwaree Council Gungaderra Grasslands Higgins Woodland Holtze Close Neighbourhood Park Illilanga & Baroona Kama Kambah Pool Kangaroo Valley LB Block Mcleods Creek Res (Gundaroo) Meroo National Park Molonglo River Reserve Monga National Park Mongarlowe River Mount Ainslie Mount Imlay National Park Mount Jerrabomberra Mount Jerrabomberra QP Mount Majura Mount Mugga Mugga Mount Painter Mulligans Flat Mundoonen Nature Reserve Nail Can Hill Namadgi National Park Penrose Piney Ridge Red Hill Nature Reserve Reservoir Hill, Lawson RP901AL Rugosa SCR380 at Windellama Stirling Park Stony Creek Nature Reserve Tallaganda National Park Tallaganda State Forest The Pinnacle Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve Tuggeranong Hill Umbagong District Park VC00433 VC00434 VC00435 VC00450 West Goulburn Bushland Reserve Wingecarribee Local Government Area Wingello WodongaPlaces
Acton, ACT Bawley Point, NSW Bournda, NSW Bruce, ACT Campbell, ACT Captains Flat, NSW Charleys Forest, NSW Chiltern, VIC Cook, ACT Cooma, NSW Crace, ACT Crookwell, NSW Crowther, NSW Dalton, NSW Deakin, ACT Denman Prospect, ACT Forbes Creek, NSW Forde, ACT Fraser, ACT Goulburn, NSW Gundaroo, NSW Hall, ACT Hawker, ACT Higgins, ACT Kangaroo Valley, NSW Kingsdale, NSW Lankeys Creek, NSW Lawson, ACT Majura, ACT Manton, NSW Mongarlowe, NSW Moruya, NSW Nanima, NSW O'Connor, ACT Paddys River, ACT Palerang, NSW Penrose, NSW Quaama, NSW Queanbeyan West, NSW Russell, ACT Symonston, ACT Taradale, VIC West Hobart, TAS Windellama, NSW Wingello, NSW
