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Tuberous Polypore

Edible

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Tuberous Polypore

An uncommon edible polypore which looks like a smaller cousin of Dryad’s Saddle.

Mushroom Type
Common Names	Tuberous Polypore (EN), Cyfrwy Cnapwreiddiog (CY), Żagiew Guzowata (PL), Olaszgomba (HU)
Scientific Name	Polyporus tuberaster
Season Start	May
Season End	Oct
Average Mushroom height (CM)	1–6
Average Cap width (CM)	2–12

Please note that each and every mushroom you come across may vary in appearance to these photos.

Cap

2–12 cm wide, circular to semi-circular, convex when young, more funnel shaped with age, rather similar looking to the Dryad’s Saddle’s cap. Skin dark cream to ochre, covered with adpressed, light brown, pyramidal scales (their end is often darker), could be slightly slimy if wet. Margin sharp, might be a little wavy.

Pores

Tubes are white to pale cream, 5–7 mm long, strongly decurrent. Pores wide, elongated and angular (similar to a Dryad’s Saddle’s pores), 1–2 x 0.5-1 mm, white to pale cream.

Stem

1–6 cm tall, 0.5–1.5 cm wide. Mostly cylindrical but often narrowing towards the base, white, fleshy (compact and dense). The base is covered with white to cream coloured fine hairs.

Flesh

Thin, soft, getting fibrous with age, white.

Habitat

On the dead wood of hardwoods, especially stumps and fallen branches of Beech, Oak and Rowan, but it is recorded from Pinus laricio in Italy too. Saprotrophic, causes white-rot.

Possible Confusion

Most of the cases it is confused with Dryad’s Saddle (Cerioporus squamosus), pictured, which is normally much bigger at maturity, its stem base is bulbous and darkening, and the stem is not usually in a central position to the cap. The scales on its cap are also darker than the scales on Tuberous Polypore’s cap.

Taste / Smell

Edible, tastes mild, smells pleasant, mushroomy.

Frequency

Uncommon, occasional, maybe locally common in some parts of the UK, but it is worth recording.

Spores

Spore print is white. Spores cylindric, ellipsoid, colourless (hyaline) and smooth (with drops).

Other Facts

This species has three ecological types. The most common one is when the fruit body is growing out of stumps or fallen branches of different hardwoods. It might grow out of buried hardwood branches (and the fruit body attached to its substrate with a mycelial cord). The rarest one grows out of a dark (pseudo)sclerotium.

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