I’ve been looking at what I think is a Phellinus (Fuscosporia). Collected at the Plankey Mill foray, it was on the fallen branch that already has yielded Hypoxylon fuscum and Dimerella pineti. Phellinus fereus seemed likely, but there is also P. ferruginosus. It is said that these can only be separated by microscopy. Their spore shapes and sizes are different. Unfortunately they sporulate in autumn, and no old spores could be found in the tissue or in the crevices of the wood.
However, Penny Cullington and Derek Schafer of the Bucks Fungus Group distinguish the two species by their ‘rusty brown spiky hairs (setae), which in P. ferruginosus occur in all parts of the context of the fruitbody, but in P. ferreus can only be found in the hymenium (the spore-producing outer layer of the fruitbody’
I think the attached photographs don’t show the hairs in subiculum (lowest layer where the fungus attaches to the wood), and I’m inclined towards Phellinus ferreus. What do you all think?
References:
Cullington, Penny (2013), ‘Hockeridge Wood Foray’, Buckinghamshire Fungus Group,
URL:http://www.bucksfungusgroup.org.uk/Documents/Report%20on%20Hockeridge%20Wood%2003%2003%2013.pdf
Cullington & Schafer (2013), ‘Rushbeds Wood Foray’, Buckingham Fungus Group,
URL: http://www.bucksfungusgroup.org.uk/Documents/Report%20on%20Rushbeds%20Wood%2005.05.pdf