365 Urban Species. #286: Chondrostereum purpureum

[urbpan]

Photos by urbpan. Location: Ornamental cherry tree in front of Brookline Sewer and Water Division.

Urban species #286: Chondrostereum purpureum

Chondrostereum purpureum is a very common, widespread, and beautiful mushroom produced by a fungus that parasitizes a very wide range of tree species. When the mushroom is fresh it has a lovely silvery violet color. There is no generally accepted common name for it, though I tend to call it "violet tooth." This describes its color as well as the toothlike projections that make up the spore-bearing surface of the underside. The "teeth" are covered with cells that generate the reproductive spores of the fungus. It infects weak trees and feeds on the wood, causing a disease that affects the color and texture of the trees' leaves. Silver leaf disease, as it is called, mainly affects plants in the genus Prunus, such as apricot and cherry. Eventually the fungus spreads throughout the tree, and the mushrooms will be found growing on wood that is quite dead.

Comments

[rinalia.livejournal.com]

Would you be able to id either of these? They were attached to some fallen, young redwoods in Muir Woods in northern California.



and

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

It's tough. There are tons of species of mushrooms that grow this way, including this one, Trametes, and Stereum. These three are pretty distinctive, but many others are more subtle. The ones you pictured here are pretty, and they look closest to two kinds of Stereum to me.

[(Anonymous)]

The first group (the yellow ones) were attached to a tree that had been felled by fire. (As an aside: It was amazing to see large redwoods with their centers missing from fire, but alive and thriving.)

It's nice to have a general pairing between "pretty fungus on dead limb" and an actual species name. :)

[rinalia.livejournal.com]

*ahem* That was me. The anonymous one. :)

[by-steph.livejournal.com]

That is interesting that it causes a systemic infection. Do you have any photos of the leaves on that tree? Did they show any signs of discoloration?

[kylara.livejournal.com]

That's rather pretty, actually. I would have thought it to look more, well, 'gross' considering what it is.

Since it infects apricot and cherry trees, I'm curious: Is this something that would render the fruit somewhat poisonous to people? Would the fruit look different if it were? (Sorry if this is a dumb question, I know very little about these things. <3)

[artemii.livejournal.com]

i see this one all the time in camberville.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

You mean bioluminescent fungi? A little.

Omphalotus olearius is supposed to be good for it. I've never seen it myself. It's never dark enough in the city.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Sorry it took me a while to get to your question--I didn't find anything saying that the disease makes the fruit toxic. You would think that if it did, that that would be one of the first warnings about the disease. It's an interesting question (not a dumb one), and I'm surprised that I couldn't find a definite answer for it.

Chondrostereum

[(Anonymous)]

Hi,
Your fungus is not what you think. Chondrostereum is not a poroid.
It has a smooth fertile surface like Stereum species, which is what those other unIDed ones are. Probably S. complicatum and S.ostrea respectively. Your purple fungus is an early stage of growth of Trichaptum biforme (aka Polyporus pergamenus) which eventually will become toothy.
Nice pictures,

Bill
Cambridge

Re: Chondrostereum

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I'm always happy to be wrong if I can learn from it. Thanks for the correction!

Trichaptum biforme

[(Anonymous)]

Chondrostereum purpureum does not have pores. It has a smooth hymenium. What you have in your pictures is the early stages of Trichaptum biforme.