Some of the mushrooms I found in the Western Ghats looked large and very colorful. I got curious and researched into the type of the fungus and found that these are called Shelf Fungi. These fungi have large fruiting bodies with pores / tubes on the underside. They feed primarily on dead wood and grow on trunks / branches of trees.
When they grow on a tree, they have a horizontal shelf like look. Thus they are called Shelf Fungus (also known as Polypores).
Just like other fungi, the Shelf fungus serves an ecological function of decomposing the wood of a dead tree or fallen branch. However if it is found on an otherwise healthy tree (as in the picture above), it is an early indication of the decay of a tree.
They are also called bracket fungus because from a top angle some of them look like a perfect bracket!
This looks like a left bracket. If clicked in a different angle, this could be a right bracket 😉
Size
Unlike the regular mushrooms that we consume, the Shelf fungi can grow to be very large – size of 40 cm or more of diameter is not very uncommon. The largest fruiting body ever found was seen in the Hainan Island of China. It measured 10.8 meters in length, 82 to 88 cms in Width and weighed an estimated 400 to 500 kgs!
Texture and Color
While some of the Shelf fungi are dull in color, many of them have beautiful patterns and are very colorful. Some of these colorful shelf fungi I have clicked in the Western Ghats for your viewing pleasure!
Now, let us come to the texture of the shelf fungi. They are typically woody or leathery. Some of them can be fleshy as well. A few of the shelf fungi are edible, while most of them are not. Shelf fungi don’t typically have a stem unlike a typical Mushroom. A few of them have a short lateral stem like the one shown below.
Medicinal Uses
While most of the Shelf fungi are not edible, many of them are used in Herbal medicine. Since they are hard, the fungi are ground and used in herbal teas as medicine. The Reishi or Lingzhi (Ganoderma lingzhi) shelf fungus is used in traditional Chinese medicines. Chinese texts have recorded medicinal uses of lingzhi for more than 2,000 years. Their extract seems to be used for treatment of cancer, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases though there is insufficient evidence of it’s efficacy. Another herbal Shelf fungus is Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor). An extract from Turkey Tail is considered safe for use as an adjunct therapy for cancer treatment in Japan.
Ecology and Conservation
Over one thousand polypore species have been described, but a large part of the diversity is still unknown even in relatively well-studied temperate areas. They are much more diverse in old natural forests with abundant dead wood than in younger managed forests or plantations. Consequently, a number of species have declined drastically and are under threat of extinction due to logging and deforestation.
The hard woody shelves of the shelf fungi are a micro habitat. They provide a unique place for animals to live. Spiders, mites, and insects live in large shelves. A few of the insects are specialized and only found in shelf fungi. Some beetles are very slim so they can fit inside a pore. They hide in a pore and eat spores. There are enough insects and other animals that a food web is created. The spiders and some insects are predators that feed on other insects. Their prey include fly larvae and small insects.
References
- Wikipedia – Polypore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypore
- Encyclopedia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/science/shelf-fungus
- The Dirt Doctor – Howard Garrett: https://www.dirtdoctor.com/garden/Fungus-Shelf_vq2853.htm
- Intermountain Herbarium – Utah State University: https://herbarium.usu.edu/fun-with-fungi/shelf-fungi
- Wikipedia – Turkey Tail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trametes_versicolor
- Wikipedia – Lingzhi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingzhi_(mushroom)
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