Stats

Lifespan: Annual
Size: Small
Diet: Decomposer
Biome: Temperate forest
Range: Worldwide
Movement: Sessile
Breeding: Spores
Defense: Armor
Status: Common

About

A bracket fungus that fans out in overlapping shelves on dead hardwood, its pore surface glowing lilac-purple when fresh before fading to dull brown with age. Despite its delicate colouring it is a powerful white-rot decomposer, breaking down lignin in fallen logs across temperate forests worldwide.

Life cycle

1.
spore
A microscopic spore drifts on air or water and germinates where moisture and substrate meet.
2.
mycelium
A thread-like mycelium spreads through the substrate, breaking it down into nutrients.
3.
fruiting body
A mature fruiting body emerges to release the next generation of spores.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Fungi
Phylum: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Hymenochaetales
Family: Hymenochaetaceae
Genus: Trichaptum
Species: Trichaptum biforme