Lacquered bracket

Description

The lacquered bracket is easy to recognise by the shiny, as if lacquered surface of the cap, which is 8-25 cm across and kidney-shaped or semicircular. The young fruiting body is lemon-yellow, then reddish and purple-brown, with a pale, wavy margin. It often has a lateral or eccentric, knobby stem. The underside has tiny pores that turn brown when touched.

It grows on roots, stumps and at the base of trunks of broadleaved trees, mainly dead ones, in forests, parks and gardens. Fresh fruiting bodies appear in summer and autumn, older ones remain all year. It is rare in Poland.

It is under partial protection, so collecting in the wild is restricted; only cultivated fruiting bodies or ones from outside Poland are allowed. The species is inedible: the flesh is hard as wood. Because it is often confused with other Ganoderma species, identification should not be based on a single feature.

Identification features

Cap

Diameter 8-25 cm (some descriptions give up to 35 cm), flat, semicircular or kidney-shaped. At first lemon-yellow, with age yellow-red, then purple, purple-brown, finally reddish-blackish. Surface uneven, usually furrowed; margin narrow, wavy, white or straw-yellow. The most characteristic feature is the shiny, as if lacquered surface.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

Tubes usually in one layer (less often two or three), 2-20 (30) mm long. Pores tiny, round, 4-5 per millimetre, at first whitish, then cream, brown with age; they turn brown when touched.

Stem

Eccentric or lateral, irregularly cylindrical, covered with knobs, up to 15 cm long and 2 cm thick, the colour of the cap and also shiny. There are forms without a stem (attached sideways) or with a rudimentary stem. Sometimes it seems to grow from the ground, but it is attached to roots.

Flesh

Spongy or corky (descriptions differ), white, ochre just above the tubes, indistinctly streaked, without a specific taste or smell; in a dried fruiting body hard as rock. Tea made from the bracket tastes bitter.

Spore print and spores

Spore print colour: no data (spores yellow-brown, brown). Spores broadly ellipsoid, ovoid, with a truncate base and a colourless germ pore, warty; dimensions 7-12.1 × 4.8-8.9 µm (on average 10.7 × 7.1 µm; descriptions give different ranges).

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. Saprotroph and wood parasite: grows on dead trees or attacks weakened and damaged ones; causes white rot of wood, which turns yellow. Mainly broadleaved trees (e.g. oak, plum), rarely conifers. Grows singly or in groups on roots, stumps and at the base of trunks in forests, parks and gardens.

Distribution. Rare in Poland: about 150 sites reported up to 2020. Red list 2006: R (potentially threatened because of limited range). In Poland under partial protection in 1995-2004, under strict protection in 2004-2014, and since 2014 again under partial protection (Dz.U. 2014 item 1408). Some descriptions give occurrence on all continents except Antarctica, others a limited range in Europe and parts of China, and statements about Asia and America refer to a species complex.

Fruiting. Fresh fruiting bodies in summer and autumn; older ones can be found all year.

What can it be confused with?

• Ganoderma carnosum — Fruiting bodies darker, grow on conifers.
• Fomitopsis pinicola (red-belted bracket) — Mentioned as similar; detailed differences - no data (it does not have a lacquered surface).
• Ganoderma sichuanense (= G. lingzhi), G. resinaceum and other Ganoderma species — Species often confused with G. lucidum; identification requires morphological and molecular analyses. Details - no data.

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

• In Japan it is called "reishi" ("mushroom of longevity"), in China "lingzhi"; in Chinese art it is a symbol of immortality and a frequent decorative motif.
• The name Ganoderma comes from the Greek ganos ("sheen") and derma ("skin").
• In a DNA study, 93% of home cultivation kits and half of the dried products labelled G. lucidum actually contained G. sichuanense.
• In Poland the protection status of the species changed several times: partial (1995-2004), strict (2004-2014), and since 2014 partial again.