Ganoderma

Notes

Woody-hard, bracket-shaped fruiting bodies on wood, mostly saprobic on dead wood but sometimes also (weakly) parasitic on living trees. Fruit bodies are perennial, forming a new layer of tubes each year beneath the previous one, like growth rings of a tree. The lower surface consists of pores, the opening of tubes in which spores are produced. During active growth, this pore surface is white, but readily turns brown when touched, hence the common name of "Artist's Conk" for a related species in the Northern Hemisphere. Both common species have a dull-coloured upper surface; the only other New Zealand species is very rare and has a shiny upper surface. Spores are thick-walled and brown, and produced in vast numbers - often seen as a brown dust below fruiting bodies or sometimes deposited by wind eddies back on top of the fruiting body.

 

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Images		NZFungi Entry

Ganoderma sp. "Awaroa"
This species has a softer, lighter fruiting body than those of other NZ Ganoderma species, and has a partly shiny (laccate) upper surface. Up to 30 cm across. It has been recorded from only four collections, all from the Waikato, all growing on

Ganoderma applanatum
The most common species of Ganoderma, found on wood of a wide range of trees both native and introduced, and up to large size (to 60 cm across). It is difficult to distinguish this species from G. australe. Helpful features without the a