Bracket fungi are tough, woody fungi that grow on both living and dead trees. They have distinctive shelf-shaped fruiting bodies.
Name: Blushing Bracket Daedaleopsis confragosa
Description: Measuring up to 20cm across the brackets often turn mottled reddish-brown with age. The pored lower surface is soft and bruises easily if pressed.
Habitat: Grows on dead wood of deciduous trees, usually willow, birch and beech.
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Name: Birch Polypore Fomitopsis betulina
Description: The whitish-brown cap grows up to 20cm across. The bracket is hard and once used by barbers to sharpen their razors. This fungus is also known as 'Razor strop'.
Habitat: Common bracket which only grows on Birch trees.
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Name: Dryad's Saddle Polyporus squamosus
Description: The common name is due to it looking similar to saddles used by mythical wood-nymphs. When growing from a root just beneath the surface it can take the form of a horn-like funnel.
Habitat: During warm weather the brackets disappear within a very short time period. Fungus flies burrow into pores to lay eggs, afterwards the fungus becomes riddled with maggots and turns into a smelly mess.
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Name: Lacquered Bracket Ganoderma lucidum
Description: The smooth, shiny, kidney-shaped brackets have a wavy edge. Initially pale, the brackets grow darker with age and grow up to 25cm across.
Habitat: Grows mainly on stumps and buried roots of broad-leaf trees. It can been found all year round.
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Name: Hairy Bracket Trametes hirsuta
Description: Brackets grow up to 10cm across. They are initially white or creamy with the upper surface covered in hairs. Concentric ridged colour zones develop on the surface. The area near the outer edge usually has brown or ochre colouration. The fruiting bodies gradually turn greyer before decaying. It is a saprophytic fungus that causes white rot.
Habitat: Mainly found on dead Beech, but sometimes occurs on other hardwoods.
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Name: Smoky Bracket Bjerkandera adusta
Description: Variable in shape, sometimes forming brackets up to 6cm across.
Habitat: Wood-rotting fungus on fallen hardwood trunks and branches.
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