fungi ID

[Peter_t]

found this growing on a birch today. its definately not birch polypor, it has white gills underneath

sory about the poor pics

thanks
pete

 

[Melonfish]

looks a little like sulpher or giant polypore but the gills throw me. have you done a spore print?

 

[Peter_t]

sory but whats a spore print lol

pete

 

[inthewids]

If you take one down and lay it on some paper, leave it there for a while,you can tap it lightly too, remove the fungi and you should be left with spores evident on the paper, you can then i.d it by the colour of the spores.

 

[Melonfish]

anything with gills leaves one.

you place the cap/top section minus the stalk on a plate of glass and cover to keep moist for about 4 hours, sometimes overnight
lift off and see what you have left. usually its a coloured spore print. i.e. everything thats dropped out whilst its been sat.
oddly fun to do but you can look up the colour and pattern in ref books along with the full descriptions, i.e. location of growth, size, colour, cap features, gill length, gill characteristics (free, adnate etc)
this can help to identify although nothing is ever 100% accurate (sadly)
have fun!
pete

 

[rich59]

This could be an oyster mushroom. It has a pale lilac spoor print. According to "How to identify edible mushrooms" by Harding Lyon and Tomblin none of the look a likes are poisonous.

 

[xylaria]

going by it is a bit browny, I would say it might be pleurotus ulmarius which is close relative of oyster mushroom. It could be an oyster fungi that is past its best.

 

[Melonfish]

its the lack of stem that makes me think it isn't an oyster tho, usually there's a ridged stem from the tree, this appears to be like a bracket fungus?