Community find

Artist's Bracket (Artist's Conk)

Ganoderma applanatum

Group

polypore

Spore print

Cocoa brown

Size

Cap diameter: 5–50 cm; Thickness: 2–10 cm.

Season

Perennial; the fruiting body persists year-round, adding a new layer of pores each growing season.

Habitat

Solitary or in groups on living or dead deciduous hardwood trees, especially beech, maple, and oak. Found at the base of trunks or on logs.

Distribution

Widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, including North America, Europe, and Asia.

Key characteristics

Large, woody, perennial shelf fungus. Upper surface is grayish-brown, matte, and often covered in a dusting of brown spores. It has concentric ridges and a white growing margin. The underside is white and bruises instantly to dark brown when touched or scratched.

Fruiting body

Cap is shelf-like or semicircular, sessile (lacking a stem), 5–50 cm wide and up to 10 cm thick. Surface is lumpy, zoned, and hard. The pore surface on the underside is white when fresh, with 4–6 tiny circular pores per millimeter.

How to recognise it

The most diagnostic feature is the white underside that instantly and permanently turns dark brown upon being scratched with a stylus or fingernail.

Look-alikes

Ganoderma lobatum (softer, annual growth), Ganoderma lucidum (shiny, varnished-looking cap), Fomes fomentarius (hoof-shaped and harder).

Ecological role

Saprophytic (decomposing dead wood) and parasitic (causing white heart rot in living trees). It plays a vital role in nutrient cycling.

Notes

This fungus is famously used as a natural canvas by artists; drawings etched into the fresh white pore surface remain permanent as the fungus dries. In nature, it is a significant producer of forest spores, with a single large specimen capable of releasing billions of spores daily during the growing season.