A small, centrally stemmed polypore on dead hardwood that fruits in spring in the East, when morel hunters often find it. The tan cap carries fine golden-brown scales and a margin fringed with tiny hairs, and the whitish pore surface has large, hexagonal, radially arranged pores. Molecular work moved it from Polyporus to Lentinus.
Not toxic as far as is known, but too small and tough to be of culinary interest.
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Saprobic on dead hardwoods, especially oaks, causing a white rot; occasionally from buried wood so it appears terrestrial. Alone, scattered or gregarious. Spring in eastern North America; summer and fall in the Rocky Mountains and Southwest, mainly on Gambel oak.
Distribution
North America east of the Rockies, the Rocky Mountains and the Southwest; recorded on all continents, with most records from the United States, Austria, Mexico, Australia and Japan.
Characteristics
Cap: 1-4 cm (to 8 cm per Wikipedia), convex to flat or shallowly depressed, dry, finely concentrically scaly with brown to golden-brown scales over a dull tan ground; margin fringed with tiny hairs. Pores: decurrent, whitish becoming brownish; hexagonal or angular, 0.5-2 mm across, radially arranged. Stem: central or slightly off-center, 2-4 cm long, 2-4 mm wide, brown to yellowish brown, scaly to hairy, tough. Flesh: white, thin, tough, unchanging. Chemical reactions: KOH negative. Spore print: creamy white. Spores: 5-8.5 x 1.5-2.5 µm, cylindrical, smooth. Hyphal system: dimitic.
