White Cheese Polypore
Tyromyces chioneus
When fresh and moist, this fungus has a soft, cheese-like texture and releases a pleasant, slightly acidic, yeast-like aroma.
- Scientific name
- Tyromyces chioneus
- Taxonomy
- Fungi › Basidiomycota › Agaricomycetes › Polyporales › Incrustoporiaceae › Tyromyces
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- stable
- Biome
- forest
- Habitat
- Deciduous and mixed forests, growing on dead or decaying hardwood logs and branches, particularly birch.
- Diet
- Saprotrophic, decomposing cellulose and lignin to cause white rot.
- Range
- North America, Europe, Asia
- Size
- Cap width 2-8 cm, thickness 1-2 cm.
- Lifespan
- Fruiting body lasts 1 season (a few months); underground mycelium can live for decades.
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Deforestation and intensive forestry management that removes deadwood habitats.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless. This shelf fungus is non-toxic to touch but is tough and inedible. It can be safely examined up close. Wash hands after handling wild fungi, and never ingest any mushroom unless identified by a professional.
Tyromyces chioneus , commonly known as the white cheese polypore , is a species of polypore fungus. A widely distributed fungus, it has a circumpolar distribution, in temperate boreal pine forests, of Asia, Europe, and North America, causes white rot in dead hardwood trees, especially birch
Photo: no rights reserved, CC0, via iNaturalist
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