Laetiporus portentosus

White Punk

The fruit body is a polypore that grows out from wood. In shape it is often somewhat like a horse’s hoof (roughly triangular in cross-section with the lower surface horizontal, the upper sloping) and the vertical third side flush against the woody substrate), but sometimes a little flatter. It may grow to 40 centimetres in its longest dimension. When fresh, the smooth upper surface is a pale brown and the whitish to faintly yellowish underside is densely packed with tiny pores. However, often you don’t see those fresh features, since the fruit bodies are usually attacked by invertebrates fairly quickly and then numerous chew holes show themselves.

An old fruit body, if it escapes the ravages of invertebrates, is likely to develop irregular, polygonal cracking, both on the upper surface and on the underside. You then see that there is only a thin, brownish skin on the upper surface, the underlying flesh being white. In this photo (https://www.anbg.gov.au/fungi/images-captions/laetiporus-portentosus-0049.html), taken in Black Mountain, the upper surface has started cracking and you can see some streaks of exposed, white flesh.   

Fallen, chewed-out fruit bodies may lose all evidence of the initial form and then look like odd lumps of polystyrene, especially as this is a very low-density polypore.

This fungus is fairly common in our region, on live trees of various species but is also found on dead wood. Often it is found singly, but two or more fruit bodies may appear close together.

Look-alikes

There is probably no species with the same combination of chunkiness, size, density and chew holes. Ryvardenia cretacea, not yet recorded from out region, is somewhat similar but has a brittle, chalky texture and appears to escape being chewed and looking like polystyrene. G. Gates and D. Ratkowsky (A Field Guide to Tasmanian Fungi, 2nd. ed, 2016, page 193) say that “When overmature, it falls off the wood and becomes chalk-like lumps on the forest floor”.

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Species information

• Laetiporus portentosus Scientific name
• White Punk Common name
• Not Sensitive
• Local Native
• Non-Invasive
• 0m to 939.5m Recorded at altitude
• 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

Location information

• Maps

  ANBG Aranda Bushland Black Mountain Callum Brae Campbell Park Woodland Cuumbeun Nature Reserve Illilanga & Baroona Kama Molonglo River Reserve Mongarlowe River Mount Ainslie Mount Jerrabomberra Mount Majura Mount Mugga Mugga Namadgi National Park Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council Red Hill Nature Reserve Rugosa at Yass River Stirling Park Stony Creek Nature Reserve The Pinnacle Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve Tuggeranong Hill Umbagong District Park

• Places

  Acton, ACT Aranda, ACT Belconnen, ACT Boro, NSW Bungendore, NSW Canberra Central, ACT Carwoola, NSW Cook, ACT Deakin, ACT Downer, ACT Dunlop, ACT Garran, ACT Goulburn, NSW Hackett, ACT Hughes, ACT Isaacs, ACT Jerrabomberra, NSW Latham, ACT Majura, ACT Michelago, NSW Mongarlowe, NSW Mount Clear, ACT Nanima, NSW O'Malley, ACT Paddys River, ACT Rendezvous Creek, ACT Sutton, NSW Symonston, ACT Tennent, ACT Theodore, ACT Yarralumla, ACT Yass River, NSW

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