Community find

Artist's Conk

Ganoderma applanatum

Group

polypore

Spore print

Cocoa brown

Size

Cap can range from 10 to 60 cm in diameter and 2 to 10 cm thick; extremely old specimens can reach even larger sizes.

Season

Perennial; the fruiting body persists throughout the year and grows larger over several seasons.

Habitat

Grows on dead or dying hardwood trees, logs, and stumps; occasionally found on conifers.

Distribution

Widespread and common across the Northern Hemisphere, including much of North America, Europe, and Asia.

Key characteristics

Perennial, woody bracket fungus with a hard, lumpy, concentric top surface that is often grayish, brownish, or white-dusted. The underside is white with tiny pores and turns dark brown quickly when bruised or scratched.

Fruiting body

Cap is fan-shaped or semicircular, sessile (attached directly to host), hard and woody. Surface is dull, greyish to brown with concentric ridges. Hymenophore is poroid, consisting of minute white pores on the underside.

How to recognise it

Scratch the white underside with a fingernail or twig; if it immediately turns dark brown and stays that way, it is likely Artist's Conk. The cap is often covered in a fine layer of cocoa-brown spores.

Look-alikes

Ganoderma lobatum (often softer and more layered), Fomes fomentarius (typically hoof-shaped and lacks the white pore surface that bruises dark brown).

Ecological role

Primarily saprophytic (decomposing dead wood) but can also be parasitic causing white rot in living trees.

Notes

The white pore surface is often used as a canvas by artists because it permanently retains lines drawn upon it, leading to its common name. The fungus is perennial and can live for several decades, adding a new tube layer to the pore surface each year.