I have loved mushrooms since childhood, and I have also been a programmer for a long time. Combining these two hobbies, I wrote this website. Previously, I had two other mushroom identification sites, which I sold. Only one of them remains accessible today. My goal with the current site is to create an easy-to-use search and identification platform that works great both in the field and at home. I hope it brings joy to others.
Bartha László
Species flashcards
Practice area: created for the 303-species Hungarian mushroom inspector requirement. It is not an official examination; requirements in other countries may differ.
Copper-red lacquer bracket
Ganoderma cupreolaccatum
not edible
Protected · 5 000 Ft
- Habitat: deciduous
- Fruiting season: January – December
- Cap: half-side wavy shiny
- Stem:
- Fertile layer: porous narrow dense
Description
Fruiting body: Perennial, bracket-shaped, usually 20–50 cm wide and 5–15 cm thick. The surface is reddish-brown, copper-brown to dark brown, strongly lacquered and shiny, with concentric wavy furrows; it is usually paler toward the margin, with yellowish-ochre zones.
Spore-bearing layer: On the underside of the bracket and porous. Initially yellowish-white, later brownish; pores narrow, rounded and densely arranged.
Stem: Absent; the fruiting body is directly attached by a broad base to the root flare or lower trunk of its host tree.
Flesh: Thick, woody-hard and dark brown. Its smell is pleasantly sweetish to spicy, and its taste is bitterish.
Spores: Spore print brown. Spores 9–12 × 6–9 µm, rounded to broadly ovoid, with spiny to warted ornamentation on the inner wall.
Occurrence: A rare white-rot, necrotrophic parasitic species, chiefly found at the base of old living or dead beech trees. Fruiting bodies may persist year-round; it is characteristic of old, near-natural broadleaf woodland.
Edibility: Not edible. Its woody, hard flesh is unsuitable for food. It is protected in Hungary, with a conservation value of 5,000 HUF, and must not be collected.
Lookalikes: It can resemble other lacquer brackets, especially the reishi mushroom, artist’s conk and southern bracket. Its copper-red lacquered surface, association with beech and crust that becomes yellow and waxy when damaged help distinguish it, but microscopy is needed for secure identification.
Note: Ganoderma means “shiny skin”, referring to the characteristically lacquered fruiting body surface. In cupreolaccatum, cupreus refers to copper and laccatum to a lacquered, glossy surface.
Species description: Kálchbrenner first described the species; Zoltán Igmándy placed it in Ganoderma under its current name in 1968.
Taxonomy
- PhylumBasidiomycota
- ClassAgaricomycetes
- OrderPolyporales
- FamilyGanodermataceae
- GenusGanoderma
- Species: Ganoderma cupreolaccatum
- Authority: (Kalchbr.) Z. Igmándy (1968)
- English name: Copper-red lacquer bracket
- Ecological status: necrotrophic parasite, white-rot fungus
- Edibility: not edible
