Stereum hirsutum
Nat. arr. Brit. pl. 1: 653. 1821.
Common Name: false turkey tail
Fruiting body annual or short-live perennial, resupinate when young, forming thin, leathery overlapping shelves at maturity, 1-3.5 cm wide and up to 8 cm long when fused with adjacent shelves; upper surface hairy, undulate, lobed, banded orange-brown to yellow-brown, older tissue grey to greyish-brown; lower fertile surface smooth, orange-buff to pale-buff, if zoned, less conspicuously than the upper surface; flesh 0.5-1.0 mm thick, pliant when young, tough in age; stalk absent.
Spores 5.5-7 x 3-3.5 µm, cylindrical, smooth.
Fruiting in tiers and overlapping shelves on dead hardwood stumps, branches, etc., occasionally on conifer wood; fruiting throughout the mushroom season.
Inedible; too tough to be of culinary value.
The small, wavy, leathery shelves of Stereum hirsutum are a common sight in California woodlands. Fresh fruitings are bright orange-brown to orange-buff, fading in age or dry weather to dull-buff or grey. As the common name suggests, Stereum hirsutum is sometimes confused with Trametes versicolor, the so called "true" turkey tail. The latter also has a banded upper surface, but is colored differently, usually a combination of grey, brown or cream, rarely with orange tones. More significantly, it has a pored, not smooth fertile surface. Lenzites betulina, another bracket fungus with a banded upper surface, differs in having a gill-like hymenium.
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.
Burt, E.A. (1920). The Thelephoraceae of North America. XII. Stereum. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 7: 81-248.
Chamuris, G.P. (1985). Infrageneric tax in Stereum and keys to North American Species. Mycotaxon 22: 105-117.
Chamuris, G.P. (1988). The Non-Stipitate Steriod Fungi in the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. J.Cramer: Berlin, Germany. 246 p.
Cunningham, G.H. (1963). The Thelephoraceae of Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research: Wellington, New Zealand. 359 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.
Persoon, C. H. (1798). Icones et descriptiones fungorum minus cognitorum. (Protologue)
Ryvarden, L. (2010). Stereoid Fungi of America. Fungiflora: Oslo, Norway. 209 p.
Welden, A.L. (2010). Stereum s.l. (Flora Neotropical Monograph 106). New York Botanical Garden: Bronx, NY. 80 p.
