Polyporales: Polypores

Also known as shelf mushrooms or bracket fungi, polypores are among the most common and most identifiable mushrooms. These tough, leathery mushrooms contain small tiny holes or pores on the underside of the cap. The word polypore actually means many pores. Polypores range in sizes. Some can be up to five pounds while others are barely the size of a fingernail. They can be found helping decompose almost any form of decaying wood, from trees to logs, and stumps. Unlike most mushrooms, a polypore does not have a continuous spore baring tissue along the underside of the cap. Instead spores of a polypore are held in a small tube-like structures similar to that of the boletes.