Laetiporus portentosus

Laetiporus portentosus
Fruiting body of L. portentosus growing on a tree, South Island, New Zealand
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Polyporales
Family: Laetiporaceae
Genus: Laetiporus
Species:
L. portentosus
Binomial name
Laetiporus portentosus
(Berk.) Rajchenb. (1995)

Laetiporus portentosus is a species of polypore fungus in the family Fomitopsidaceae, found in South America, Australia, and in the North Island and northern South Island of New Zealand.[1]

Name

L. portentosus is known in Māori as pūtawa or pangu, and European settlers (Pākeha) called it "beech whiskers", "beech beard", or "morepork bread".[2] It was also referred to as "punk", a general term for any Polyporus fungus dried and used as tinder.[3]

Description

The fungus is a yellowish or white flattened bulbous mass, with a consistency like expanded polystyrene when it is dry, but soft like a sponge when it is thoroughly wet, with a light brown top and paler underside with very small but visible pores, 1–3 pores/mm. Often enough, the mass is thoroughly eaten by grubs, till it looks like a sponge.[4][2] Usually found several metres above ground, it grows 10–30 cm across and up to 6 cm thick.[1][4]

Ecology

In New Zealand this species in Māori tradition was associated with the small tree hutu (Ascarina lucida), so much so that it was known as ngā huruhuru o hutu waewae – "the hairs on the legs of hutu".[2] In New Zealand it is also found on southern beech (Nothofagus) trees.[3] The white-throated treecreeper (Cormobates leucophaea) has been recorded feeding on this fungus in a heathy dry forest in Victoria.[5]

In a study comparing different fungi that inhabit wood, it was found that L. portentosus had a high ability to decompose heartwood and a low ability to decompose sapwood of Nothofagus pumilio.[6]

Taxonomy

The fungus was first described in 1844 by English mycologist Miles Joseph Berkeley. Mario Rajchenberg transferred it to the genus Laetiporus in 1995, based on morphology, but in a 2008 molecular phylogeny L. portentosus fell well outside the core Laetiporus clade, suggesting Laetiporus is polyphyletic and more gene regions needed to be sequenced to resolve this.[7][8] The fungus has acquired an extensive synonymy in the interim:[9]

  • Polyporus portentosus Berk. (1844)
  • Ungulina portentosa (Berk.) Pat. (1906)
  • Piptoporus portentosus (Berk.) G. Cunn. (1965)
  • Polyporus eucalyptorum Fr. (1846)
  • Ungulina eucalyptorum (Fr.) Pat. (1906)
  • Piptoporus eucalyptorum (Fr.) Warcup (1986)
  • Polyporus leucocreas Cooke (1879)
  • Polyporus spermolepidis Pat. (1898)
  • Ungulina spermolepidis (Pat.) Pat. (1906)
  • Ungulina spermolepidis var. pandani Pat. (1906)
  • Polyporus spermolepidis var. pandani (Pat.) Sacc. & Trotter (1912)
  • Polyporus albofuscus Lloyd (1924)
  • Durogaster albus Lloyd (1924)

Cultural uses

L. portentosus has been used traditionally as tinder and for carrying fire by both Australian Aboriginals[10] and New Zealand Māori people; when dried and set alight, the fungus will smoulder very slowly, and could be used as a reliable source of ignition.[3] Smouldering pieces were half-buried in the ground (where they would burn for a day or two), carried from place to place in ornately-carved tinderboxes, or placed atop a stick and used to light one's way when travelling at night.[2] Pākehā also used pūtawa as a fire starter, a substitute for touchpaper, carrying it around in cigarette tins; it was even sent with flint stones to New Zealand troops in both World Wars to help light cigarettes and pipes.[2]

Māori used pūtawa cut into absorbent strips and bandaged around wounds to protect them from pressure.[2] It was also possibly taken internally "to soften and ease a difficult labour."[3][11]

  • Fruiting bodies of L. portentosus in New Zealand
  • Upper surface of fruiting body
    Upper surface of fruiting body
  • Fruiting bodies growing on a tree
    Fruiting bodies growing on a tree
  • Immature fruiting body sliced open
    Immature fruiting body sliced open

References

  1. ^ a b Sisson, Liv (2023). Fungi of Aotearoa: a curious forager's field guide. Auckland, New Zealand: Penguin Books. pp. 270–271. ISBN 978-1-76104-787-9. OCLC 1372569849.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Vennell, Robert (2023). The Forgotten Forest. Auckland: HarperCollins. ISBN 9781775542193.
  3. ^ a b c d Riley, Murdoch (1994). Māori Healing and Herbal. Paraparaumu: Viking Sevenseas. pp. 383–384.
  4. ^ a b Hubregtse, J. (2019) Fungi In Australia, Rev. 2.2, Part 4, Basidiomycota, Agaricomycotina II, pages 163–165. E-published by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria Inc., Blackburn, Victoria, Australia. Web address http://www.fncv.org.au/fungi-in-australia/
  5. ^ Maurer, C.N.; Maurer, G.; Reaney, L.T. (2017). "White-throated Treecreeper 'Cormobates leucophaea' feeding on bracket fungus". Australian Field Ornithology. 34: 10–11. doi:10.20938/afo34010011.
  6. ^ Ana Laura Gallo; Oscar A. Troncoso; Alina Greslebin (20 October 2022). "Ability of selected wood-inhabiting fungi to degrade in vitro sapwood and heartwood of Nothofagus pumilio: Fungal wood decay ability". Lilloa. 59 (Suplemento): 173–191. doi:10.30550/J.LIL/2022.59.S/2022.09.24. ISSN 0075-9481. Wikidata Q115696923.
  7. ^ Rajchenberg M. (1995). "A taxonomic study of the Subantarctic Piptoporus (Polyporaceae, Basidiomycetes) II". Nordic Journal of Botany. 15 (1): 105–119. doi:10.1111/j.1756-1051.1995.tb00127.x.
  8. ^ Lindner, Daniel L.; Banik, Mark T. (2008). "Molecular phylogeny of Laetiporus and other brown rot polypore genera in North America". Mycologia. 100 (3): 417–430. doi:10.3852/07-124R2. ISSN 0027-5514. PMID 18751549.
  9. ^ "GSD Species Synonymy: Laetiporus portentosus (Berk.) Rajchenb". Species Fungorum. CAB International. Retrieved 2015-11-04.
  10. ^ Cunningham A, Xeufei Y (2012). Mushrooms in Forests and Woodlands: "Resource Management, Values and Local Livelihoods". Routledge. p. 53. ISBN 978-1-136-53817-9.
  11. ^ Fuller R, Buchanan P, Roberts M (2005). "Medicinal uses of fungi by New Zealand Maori people". International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms. 7 (3): 402. doi:10.1615/IntJMedMushrooms.v7.i3.470.