Growing in a hole in a Maple Tree
The spores are white
The underside of the cap has tubes or pores
--scroll down for more pictures
Polyporales sensu lato
Growing 12/15/13 in Rosslyn Virginia
Growing in a hole in a maple tree
Probably: Polyporales sensu lato
or maybe: Meripilus giganteus
Posted on Mushroom Observer
Two people said it was: Polyporales sensu lato
One Person said: Meripilus giganteus
Used references: Arora, Mushrooms Demystified, p. 565,
under Bondarzewia montana.
“Meripius giganteus occurs at the bases of hardwoods in eastern North America.
It stains, ages, or dries gray to dark brown or black on the pore
surface and/or margin and has much smaller pores (3-7 per mm).
Like Bondarzewia, it often has a compound fruiting body, but has smooth, non-amyloid spores.
The individual caps in all of these species are usually larger than those of Grifola.”
All this may be true, but I have not seen it myself.
There were lots of very white spores
The spore distributing surface sort of has tubes,
but it is more like a sponge
This is a side view of the spore distributing surface.
There does not appear to be tubes. Could it be that they are so
small that they can not be seen at this magnification
The spores are oblong and
6 to 7 by 13 to 15 microns
The material in the cap is very fibrous
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