(5 votes, average: 4.40 out of 5)
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Smoky Bracket
Inedible 
Autumn 
Spring 
Summer 
Winter
A very common, small, annual polypore mushroom with grey pore surface.
| Mushroom Type | |
| Common Names | Smoky Bracket (EN), Scorched Bracket (US), Ysgwydd Fyglyd (CY), Szaroporka Podpalana (PL), Szenes Likacsosgomba (HU) |
| Scientific Name | Bjerkandera adusta |
| Season Start | All Year |
| Season End | All Year |
| Average Mushroom height (CM) | |
| Average Cap width (CM) |
Fruiting Body
3–7 cm across, thin, convex to nearly flat, fan-shaped or shelf-like, often overlapping or even rosette-like, usually in groups. It could be resupinate if growing on the underside of the host/substrate. Margin is white, blackening with age. Its skin is faintly hairy (tomentose) with faint concentric zones at first, could be almost completely hairless and suede-like with age.
Pores
Tubes up to 1 mm long, pale grey to grey. Pores 4–7 per mm, angular to irregularly rounded, smoke-grey, blackening if damaged.
Flesh
Thin, elastic and has two layers. Under the skin it is whitish, while greyish to blackish above the tubes.
Habitat
On the dead wood of hardwoods, especially beech, but rarely on conifers. Saprotrophic, causes white-rot.
Possible Confusion
Especially younger fruit bodies could be easily confuse with Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor), pictured, but its skin has more colour and its pore surface is much brighter white.
Its close relative, Big Smoky Bracket (Bjerkandera fumosa) somewhat bigger (4–10 cm across), its cap is paler in colour and growing mostly on sycamore, but also on alder, sweet chestnut or other hardwood genera. There is a dark layer between the two layers of its flesh.
Spore Print
Spore print is white. Spores elliptical, smooth and colourless (hyaline).
Taste / Smell
Inedible, tastes sour, but it has a somewhat sweet smell.
Frequency
Common and widespread.
3 comments for Smoky Bracket
Can these grow out of brickwork? Restoring a 140year old building and something similar is growing from the bricks
Hi Ben,
Not really. It is a saprotrophic species, growing on already dead wood material of hardwoods.
plus we often find it on the same stumps as Turkey Tail side by side