Corticioid, crust, patch and paint are non-specific descriptive term.
It covers fungi with flat fruit bodies on wood or sometimes leaf litter.
Most are wood-rotting fungi with the vegetative mycelium in the wood.
They produce flat fruit bodies on the surface.
They can cause white or brown rot.
Size varies from a few mms to over 1 m and adjacent ones often fuse.
They can be almost any colour and some form large rhizomorphs (thick bundles of hyphae).
All two dimensional fungi were initially placed in the family Corticiaceae.
DNA studies have now shown they belong in 18 orders with about 250 genera with 1700 species.
A few have been left in the original family which is not well defined.
There are 2 basic types:
- Effused or flat.
These are 2 dimensional with only the spore bearing layer visible.
This can be pale or coloured, smooth or cracked and dull, shiny or waxy.
It can also be wrinkled (merulioid) or have teeth or spines (hydnoid). - Effused-reflexed.
Three dimensional – a flat crust with a raised edge forming a small cap.
There is some overlap between the two types.
The upper surface of the cap can be smooth or hairy.
Colours range from buff, brown, tan, red, orange, yellow to pink.
There may be concentric zones of varying colour and texture.
The spore-bearing layer or hymenium can be smooth, wrinkled or have tooth or spine-like projections.
The later are very difficult to identify and most require microscopy.
Genera include Aleurodiscus, Kretzschmaria, Phlebia and Phlebiopsis.
There are a large number of undocumented species.
(Stereoid fungi are crusts that form small caps but they have no pores.
Most are species of Stereum and Steccherinum.)
I have a number of unidentified pored crusts that I will put in the old Corticiaceae.
J.F.
