Oak Mazegill

Description

Oak mazegill is a hard, corky, perennial fungus shaped like a semicircular bracket or cushion, usually 5–20 cm wide. The upper surface is bare, wavy, light brown, the colour of wood. The underside consists of thick, cream-brown gills arranged in a labyrinth, from which the genus name comes.

It grows all year round on dead trunks and stumps of oaks, in forests and parks, sometimes on oak beams, bridges and posts. In Poland it is common.

You can tell it from Daedaleopsis confragosa by its thick, unzoned fruiting body with a blunt or sharp margin and very thick gills, whereas Daedaleopsis confragosa has a thin, clearly zoned fruiting body. Oak mazegill is inedible.

Identification features

Cap

Fruiting body perennial (up to 10 years), sessile, attached to the substrate by its side; semicircular, bracket-shaped, sometimes cushion-shaped, effused-reflexed or irregular. Width 3–25 cm, thickness 2–8 cm (descriptions give different ranges), margin sharp. Surface bare, wavy, usually not zoned (zoning at most near the margin), in light brown shades, similar to the colour of wood. Fruiting bodies grow singly or in tiered groups.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

Labyrinthine (daedaloid): initially pored, with age some of the walls between the pores disappear, forming slits and thick, blunt gill-like partitions. Partitions thick, flexible, not layered, about 1–5 cm long, whitish to cream-brown. A form with large, angular pores, similar to the pores of the genus Trametes (f. trametea), has been described.

Stem

No stem; the fruiting body is sessile.

Flesh

Cream to brown, corky and flexible, very light when dried. No data on smell and taste; the flesh should not be tasted.

Spore print and spores

Spore print white. Spores cylindrical to ellipsoid, smooth, 5–7 × 2–4 µm (descriptions give different ranges).

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. Saprotroph causing brown rot of wood. Grows mainly on oak wood (dead trunks, stumps, in forests and parks), very rarely on other broadleaf trees, e.g. hornbeam, beech, ash, black walnut, elm. Also found on structural oak timber (bridges, posts), where it damages utility wood.

Distribution. Widespread in Europe, its range matching that of oaks. Also occurs in North Africa, in Asia from the Caucasus to India, and in Australia; in North America it is widespread, but rare west of the Mississippi. Common in Poland. Not legally protected in Poland.

Fruiting. Fruiting bodies are perennial and can be found all year round; no precise data on the time of spore release.

What can it be confused with?

• Daedaleopsis confragosa (blushing bracket) — Hymenophore also labyrinthine, but the fruiting body is thinner, clearly zoned, with a very sharp margin.

Never rely on a single feature. If you are not sure — do not pick it; show the mushroom to a qualified mushroom expert.

Interesting facts

• The genus name Daedalea comes from Daedalus of Greek mythology; the labyrinthine hymenophore resembles the labyrinth in which Daedalus wandered.
• The epithet quercina comes from the Latin name of the oak (Quercus), on whose wood the fungus most often grows.
• The fruiting bodies were sometimes used as a natural comb, e.g. for brushing horses with sensitive skin.
• In Polesie it was burned in homes during mosquito season as an insect repellent.