Red Belted Conk

Description

The red belted conk is a hard, perennial, hoof-shaped bracket fungus attached sideways to the trunk. It can be up to 40 cm wide and 15 cm thick. The top is covered with a grey-brown crust with a distinct pale, orange to cherry-coloured border; the underside is cream to yellowish with fine, round pores.

It is very common throughout Poland, most often on pines and spruces, but it also grows on broadleaf trees, on living and dead trunks. It is visible all year round.

Older specimens are easily confused with the tinder fungus; the pore colour and the match test help (the crust of the red belted conk melts, that of the tinder fungus chars). It is an inedible fungus, woody and bitter.

Identification features

Cap

Fruiting body perennial, attached sideways to the tree; width up to 40 cm (descriptions give different ranges), thickness up to 15 cm. Young specimens flattened, older ones thicker, hoof-shaped or triangular. Surface hard, more or less smooth, in older ones covered with a hard grey-brown crust; according to some descriptions first orange-yellow with a white margin, later dark reddish to brown, often with an orange margin. Distinct growth zone: whitish, orange to cherry-coloured in young ones, darker and narrower in older ones. In hot weather the crust may melt.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

Several layers of tubes, each up to 8 mm long, cream to yellowish, the underside turning brown with age. Pores round, regular, 3–4 per mm. The number of tube layers does not allow the age of the fruiting body to be determined.

Stem

No stem; the fruiting body is attached sideways to the wood.

Flesh

Wood-coloured or lemon-yellow to yellow-brown, turning slightly pink when damaged; hard, corky. Bitter taste. Never taste the flesh of unknown mushrooms.

Spore print and spores

Spore print white; spores smooth, colourless or pale yellow, elliptical to oblong-ovoid, 6–8 × 3–4 µm.

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. A parasite and saprotroph of trees, causes brown rot of wood (decomposes cellulose, leaves lignin). Grows on living and dead trees, most often on Scots pine and spruce, less often on fir and larch; fairly often also on broadleaf trees (alder, birch, maple, beech, hornbeam, fruit trees). Enters through wounds. The parasitic fungus Trichoderma pulvinatum sometimes occurs on the fruiting bodies. Rotten wood is used by woodpeckers; in primeval forests it creates gaps in the canopy and habitats for animals.

Distribution. Northern Hemisphere: North America, Europe, Asia. Common in Poland and Central Europe, in the mountains up to the upper tree line. No legal protection in Poland.

Fruiting. Fruiting body perennial, present all year round.

What can it be confused with?

• Fomes fomentarius (tinder fungus) — Older specimens of the red belted conk are very similar to it. Differences: in the red belted conk the pores are yellow and the growth zone bright; the match test — under a flame the crust of the red belted conk melts, while that of the tinder fungus only chars.
• Rhodofomes roseus (rosy conk) — Smaller fruiting bodies (up to 8 cm), from dirty pink through purple-pink to almost black.
• Ganoderma lucidum, Laricifomes officinalis, Heterobasidion annosum — Mentioned as similar species; detailed differences — no data.
• Fomitopsis rosea (rosy conk) — Caution: similar protected species (partial protection in Poland), not included in the Atlas. Smaller, with a pink pore surface and pinkish flesh, cap greyish-pink to brown, without the reddish band near the margin; on dead spruce and fir wood, mainly in old mountain forests.

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 fruiting body is suitable as tinder.
• Rotten trees with the red belted conk shelter birds and mammals, and woodpeckers excavate cavities in the wood.
• Under high temperature, e.g. a match flame, the crust of the red belted conk melts, which distinguishes it from the tinder fungus.