Stats

Lifespan

Up to 1 yr

Size

Medium

Diet

Decomposer

Biome

Tropical rainforest

Range

Worldwide

Movement

Sessile

Breeding

Spores

Defense

Armor

Status

Uncommon

About

A shelf-shaped bracket fungus with a smooth, creamy latte-colored cap that grows in tiered, overlapping clusters on dead or dying hardwood. Its tough, leathery flesh lets a single cluster persist on a log for years, slowly releasing spores from thousands of tiny pores on its underside.

Life cycle

1. 1.
   spore

   A microscopic spore drifts on air or water and germinates where moisture and substrate meet.
2. 2.
   mycelium

   A thread-like mycelium spreads through the substrate, breaking it down into nutrients.
3. 3.
   fruiting body

   A mature fruiting body emerges to release the next generation of spores.

Learn more

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Taxonomy

Kingdom

Fungi

Phylum

Basidiomycota

Class

Agaricomycetes

Order

Polyporales

Family

Polyporaceae

Genus

Trametes

Species

Trametes lactinea