Trametes versicolor
Atl. Champ. Eur. 3:261. 1936.
Common Name: turkey tails
Synonym: Coriolus versicolor, Polyporus versicolor
Fruiting body up to 10 cm broad, bracket to shelf-like or fan-shaped, attached along one side or just near the middle of one side, the upper surface tomentose, with multicolored zones. Flesh thin, usually less than 2 mm thick, white, tough, and fibrous. The underside a white to pale yellow layer of very small tubes, vertically oriented with 3-5 pores per mm, the tube mouths more or less round.
Spores 4-6 x 1.5-2.5 µm, slightly curved-cylindrical (like a cooked hotdog), smooth, hyaline, white to pale yellow in deposit.
Typically in rows or overlapping shelves on stumps and logs of hardwoods, from fall to spring.
Too tough to try.
Though fruiting during the fall and winter months, shelves of the colorful turkey tail can be found almost any month of the year. Trametes versicolor is sometimes confused with unrelated leathery shelf fungi. Species of Stereum have orange-brown zoned caps but can be distinguished by their smooth hymenial surface. Lenzites, Daedalea, Daedaleopsis, and Gloeophyllum all have a multicolored, zonate upper surfaces, but their hymeniums are variously composed of irregular, mazelike, or elongated gill-like pores.
Bernicchia, A. (2005). Polyporaceae s.l. (Fungi Europaei). Edizioni Candusso: Alassio, Italy. 807 p.
Bernicchia, A. & Gorjón, S.P. (2020). Polypores of the Mediterranean Region. Romar: Segrate, Italy. 903 p.
Bessette, A.E., Smith, D.G. & Bessette, A.R. (2021). Polypores and Similar Fungi of Eastern and Central North America. University of Texas Press: Austin, TX. 430 p.
Bougher, N.L. & Syme, K.(1998). Fungi of Southern Australia. University of Western Australia Press: Nedlands, Australia. 391 p.
Breitenbach, J. & Kränzlin, F. (1986). Fungi of Switzerland. Volume 2: Non-Gilled Fungi. Verlag Mykologia: Luzern, Switzerland. 412 p.
Cunningham, G.H. (1944). The Gasteromycetes of Australia and New Zealand. Privately Published: Dunedin, N. Z. 236 p.
Desjardin, D.E., Wood, M.G. & Stevens, F.A. (2015). California Mushrooms: The Comprehensive Identification Guide. Timber Press: Portland, OR. 560 p.
Ellis, M.B. & Ellis, J.P. (1990). Fungi without Gills (Hymenomycetes and Gasteromycetes). Chapman and Hall: London, England. 329 p.
Gilbertson, R. L. & Ryvarden, L. (1987). North American Polypores, vol. 2. Fungiflora: Oslo, Norway. 452 p. (PDF)
Ginns, J. (2017). Polypores of British Columbia (Fungi: Basidiomycota). British Columbia: Victoria, BC. 260 p. (PDF)
Jeppson, M., Nilsson, R.H. & Larsson, E. (2013). European earthstars in Geastraceae (Geastrales, Phallomycetidae)—a systematic approach using morphology and molecular sequence data. Systematics and Biodiversity Systematics and Biodiversity 11(4): 437-465.
Overholts, L.O. (1953). The Polyporaceae of the United States, Alaska, and Canada. University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, MN. 466 p. (PDF)
Zamora, J.C., de Diego Calonge, F., Hosaka, K. & Martín, M.P. (2014). Systematics of the genus Geastrum (Fungi: Basidiomycota) revisited. Taxon 63(3): 477-497.
— pore surface
