Cryptoporus volvatus (Peck) Shear.
Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 29: 450. 1902.

Common Name: Veiled Polypore

• Sporocarp

  Fruiting body annual, persistent, sessile, globose to cushion-shaped, occasionally lobed, 1.5-6.5 cm broad, 1-2.5 cm thick; surface smooth, shiny, chestnut-brown to ochraceous-brown, occasionally tinged pinkish at the attachment point, in age unpolished, fading to buff-brown; margin broad, rounded, continuing as a tough, buff-brown to whitish, veil-like membrane over the spore-bearing surface; flesh white, thick, pliant at first, tough in age; tubes 3-5 mm long, pallid becoming buff-brown; pores 3-4/mm.

• Spores

  Spores 8-10 x 3.5-5 µm, smooth, elongate-elliptical; spore print pinkish-buff.

• Habitat

  Scattered to grouped on standing dead conifers or fallen timber; fruiting from mid to late winter.

• Edibility

  Too tough to considered for the table.

• Comments

  This unusual polypore looks like a puffball growing on wood. However, sectioning the woody fruiting body (a sturdy blade or saw is required) reveals an internal tube layer typical of polypores. Insects, mostly beetles, help disperse the spores by chewing holes in the veil-like membrane that covers the tube layer and by carrying spores to other dead trees.

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • Taylor F. Lockwood: Cryptoporus volvatus (CP)
  • Taylor F. Lockwood: Cryptoporus volvatus (CP) -- closeup of cut open sporocarp
  • Michael Wood: Cryptoporus volvatus (CP)
  • Michael Wood: Cryptoporus volvatus (CP) -- closeup of cut open sporocarp
  • Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network: Cryptoporus volvatus (CP)
  • Arora (1986): p. 585 (D & P)
  • Gilbertson & Ryvarden (1986): p. 220 (D), p. 221 (I)
  • Lincoff: p. 452 (D), plate 528 (CP)

  (D=Description; I=Illustration; P=Photo; CP=Color Photo)