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Meripilus giganteus

The giant polypore

Description

Fruiting bodies are up to 30 cm across or more, composed of multiple caps sharing a branched, stemlike base. Caps are 5–20 cm across; fan-shaped; finely velvety or bald; whitish becoming brownish with age; often radially streaked and concentrically zoned; the margin thin, bruising and aging black. Pore surface is whitish, becoming dirty tan; bruising dark brown to black when fresh; with 6–8 round to angular pores per  mm; tubes are up to 8 mm deep. It is parasitic on living oaks and other hardwoods causing a white rot. It grows in large clusters of rosettes near the bases of trees, often reappearing in the same place in subsequent years in summer and fall.

Symptom

The individual hats are 8 - 30 cm wide, at first roughly fleshy with a conspicuous edge wall, later they are thinned with a sharp edge.

Tree Species: Beech

Part of a plant- attacked: Roots

Pest significance: Harmful

Pest Category: Fungi

Invasive Species: No

Present in EU: Yes

Seasonal frequency of occurrence

Seasonal frequency of occurrence