Inonotus hispidus - Shaggy Bracket

Inonotus hispidus - Shaggy Bracket

I recently visited Bunny Wood in Nottinghamshire.  It is a small wood that I visit just once or twice a year and where more often than not, I find something interesting.This wood is low down in a hollow and it was very cold.  Still, there were fungi to be seen.

Solitary on an Ash tree trunk I discovered my first Shaggy Bracket.  It has a hidden beauty beneath those shaggy fibrous hairs.  Although a dull tabacco brown in colour because of its maturity, just below the surface could be seen a lovely rusty/ochraceous glimmer.  The fibrous hairs felt like stiff bristles on a yard brush.  This is an annual fungus and when it is old it drops off the tree trunk and is seen as a black lump on the ground.

Characteristics: up to 12 cm across and just as thick. It is usually solitary but can sometimes be seen in small groups.   When young it is ochraceous, slowly turning to tabacco brown with maturity.  Just before it drops of the tree it turns black.  The outer surface has bristle type of hairs, but is felty in texture when immature.  The pores are circular/angular.  It is usually to be found on Ash but can also be seen on apple trees and elm. It is quite common.

Mature Shaggy Bracket

Very mature Shaggy Bracket

The example in the photograph above is at the stage where it is nearly ready to drop off the tree trunk and fall to the ground.