Trametes versicolor & Trametes hirsuta.
Trametes sp.
Basidomycota > Agaricomycetes > Polyporales > Polyporaceae.
About fifty species of fan shaped brackets with pores underneath.
They are found on dead or living wood.
Brackets grow to 70 mm or more across.
The caps frequently fuse laterally and form extensive shelves.
The caps are thin and leathery.
The youngest fruit bodies are white.
Older caps have an upper surface with concentric zones of colour and texture.
Colours include shades of red, brown, rust, black and grey.
Texture may alternate between velvety, due to tiny hairs, and smooth.
Some have a white margin which may be wavy.
Appearance is very variable and older ones become greenish from algae.
The pore surface is cream or brownish as it ages.
Spores are released from tiny pores which may need magnification to be seen.
Trametes versicolor.
Known as the Rainbow Bracket or Turkey Tails.
Common, it lives on decomposing wood where it forms large, dense overlapping colonies and tiers.
Caps are thin and leathery, round, fan-shaped or semicircular brackets up to 10 cm wide.
The margins may be lobed or wavy and are white or paler than the rest of the cap.
There are alternating bands of texture, and light and dark colours.
Colours are variable with shades of creams, browns, yellows, oranges, blue, grey or black.
It is most commonly seen with shades of brown to red orange.
They may be green from algal growth.
Smooth zones alternate with minute hairs which give a velvety appearance.
The lower surface is initially whitish or pale cream then light brown.
There are 3 to 5 minute, round or polygonal pores/mm.
The margin is sterile and the spore print white.
There is no stem but a narrow lateral attachment.
Trametes hirsuta.
Commonly known as the Hairy Bracket.
The usually semicircular brackets are 3 to 10 cm across but may fuse to form shelves.
Young ones are white or cream with dense, pale hairs.
Older ones have narrow, concentric zones of brown and yellow-brown.
The upper surface is covered in whitish hairs, very dense near the base.
The upper surface is ridged and fades to grey as it ages.
The margin is brownish.
The pore surface is white then cream or pale brown.
Pores, 3-4 per mm, are mainly round but a few may fuse forming irregular shapes.
J.F.
