Laetiporus portentosus

White Punk at Cook, ACT

Laetiporus portentosus at Cook, ACT - 15 Sep 2020
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Identification history

Laetiporus portentosus 16 Sep 2020 Heino1
Laetiporus portentosus 16 Sep 2020 Heino1
Unidentified 16 Sep 2020 Tammy

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4 comments

Heino1 wrote:
   16 Sep 2020
Very well chewed! There's virtually nothing left.
Tammy wrote:
   16 Sep 2020
Do you know who would chew it, possums?
Heino1 wrote:
   16 Sep 2020
It is typical for the fruitbodies of this species to be heavily infested with invertebrates. They create lots of tunnels through the fruitbody and the holes that show in your photo are remnants of tunnels created by burrowing invertebrates. Mass chewing weakens the fruitbody so bits (or the the whole fruitbody) can fall off - and it is common to see parts of (or entire, but chewed) fruitbodies on the ground, where they often resembles irregularly-shaped lumps of polystyrene. Even without grub attack, the fruitbodies of this species generally don't stay on the tree for too long and, very occasionally, you might even see a largely intact fruitbody on the ground. If you look at the photos of this species on Canberra Nature Map you will see that many show grub chew holes - but some show obvious bite marks caused by larger animals. Various native animals are known to eat fungi, often opportunistic rather than deliberate (though consumption of native truffles is an exception). I don't known which larger animals eat this Laetiporus, but invertebrates are the main consumers.
Tammy wrote:
   16 Sep 2020
Thanks for the information. Very interesting.

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Location information

Sighting information

Species information

  • Laetiporus portentosus Scientific name
  • White Punk Common name
  • Not Sensitive
  • Local native
  • Non-invasive or negligible
  • Up to 995m Recorded at altitude
  • Machine learning
  • External link More information
  • Synonyms

    Piptoporus eucalyptorum (Fr.) Warcup, Ecology Forests Woodlands South Australia: 131 (1986) Piptoporus portentosus (Berk.) G. Cunn., Bull. N.Z. Dept. Sci. Industr. Res., Pl. Dis. Div. 164: 106 (1965) Piptoporus eucalyptorum Piptoporus portentosus
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