Stereum hirsutum (Willdenow: Fries) S.F. Gray
Nat. arr. Brit. pl. 1: 653. 1821.

Common Name: False Turkey Tail

• Sporocarp

  Fruiting body annual or short-live perennial, resupinate when young, forming thin, leathery overlapping shelves at maturity, 1-3.5 cm wide and up to 8 cm long when fused with adjacent shelves; upper surface hairy, undulate, lobed, banded orange-brown to yellow-brown, older tissue grey to greyish-brown; lower fertile surface smooth, orange-buff to pale-buff, if zoned, less conspicuously than the upper surface; flesh 0.5-1.0 mm thick, pliant when young, tough in age; stalk absent.

• Spores

  Spores 5.5-7 x 3-3.5 µm, cylindrical, smooth.

• Habitat

  Fruiting in tiers and overlapping shelves on dead hardwood stumps, branches, etc., occasionally on conifer wood; fruiting throughout the mushroom season.

• Edibility

  Inedible; too tough to be of culinary value.

• Comments

  The small, wavy, leathery shelves of Stereum hirsutum are a common sight in Bay Area woodlands. Fresh fruitings are bright orange-brown to orange-buff, fading in age or dry weather to dull-buff or grey. As the common name suggests, Stereum hirsutum is sometimes confused with Trametes versicolor, the so called "true" Turkey Tail. The latter also has a banded upper surface, but is colored differently, usually a combination of grey, brown or cream, rarely with orange tones. More significantly, it has a pored, not smooth fertile surface. Lenzites betulina, another bracket fungus with a banded upper surface, differs in having a gill-like hymenium.

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • Brother Alfred Brousseau: Stereum hirsutum (CP)
  • Mark Steinmetz: Stereum hirsutum (CP)
  • Mark Steinmetz: Stereum hirsutum (CP)
  • Michael Wood: Stereum hirsutum (CP)
  • Michael Wood: Stereum hirsutum (CP)
  • Michael Wood: Stereum hirsutum (CP)
  • Michael Wood: Stereum hirsutum (CP)
  • Elias Fries' fungus plates: Stereum hirsutum (I)
  • Arora (1986): p. 605 (D), p. 606 (P)
  • Breitenbach & Kränzlin (vol.2): sp. 200 (D, I, & CP)
  • Jordan: p. 118 (D & CP)
  • Lincoff: p. 496 (D), plate 537 (CP)

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