Trichaptum abietinum (Purplepore Bracket)

English Name:

Purplepore Bracket

(other scientific names include Polyporus dolosus, Boletus abietinus, Trametes abietina, Hydnum parasiticum, Hirschioporus abietinus, Polyporus abietinus, Physisporus caesioalbus)

Fruiting:

This bracket is quite persistent so can be found on conifer logs at any time of year, however, the majority of UK records are made in September and October.

Trichaptum abietinum (Purplepore Bracket) showing one upturned bracket with purple pores.

The National Biodiversity Network Gateway records from FRDBI andHBRG datasets are shown on the above map (see terms and conditions at http://data.nbn.org.uk). Data providers and the NBN Trust bear no responsibility for any further analysis or interpretation of the information in the map.

Habitat:

This species appears on soil, often amongst grassland in parks, pastures and gardens. It occasionally appears on compost heaps or manure and is of course extensively cultivated.

Distribution:

Astonishingly few records of this species in Scotland although the NBN map is rather misleading as very few of the records on the FRDBI have accompanying grid references – so don’t forget to add the grid reference with any record that you send in – otherwise it won’t be added to the mapping programme!

The Checklist gives the distribution as England ‘occasional’ and everywhere else ‘distribution unknown’, in general widespread. The total number of sites for this species on the Fungal Records Database of Britain and Ireland (FRDBI) is 270 with 28 of these from Scotland. The FRDBI suggests that most of the records are from the Edinburgh area with outliers from Mull, Shetland, Perthshire and Uist (Chris Johnson has found it at the latter site this spring). An anonymous recorder has added an Edinburgh record ‘on sale in Marks and Spencer’ ….!

By Liz Holden