Well folks, we’ve left the humid jungle and are back to the regular - don’t say boring - late winter/early spring fungal lull. Today’s mushroom, the Hairy Bracket (Trametes hirsuta), is one you can find basically anytime of the year in the northeast which is impressive in it of itself. The specific specimen we have is from the March 3rd NYMS walk in Inwood Hill Park. This mushroom, while not toting the flamboyant greens and yellows of jungle fungi, completely changed how I think about Turkey Tail and other Trametes species.
Fun Facts
Surprisingly, the NIH’s online National Library of Medicine (PubMed) has 183 scientific studies with Trametes hirsuta that date back all the way to 1975. The scope of these studies range from the medicinal - the potentially anticancer and antioxidant properties - to biofabrication, or the potential of the fungus’s mycelium to be used as a natural fibrous material. I did not finely comb through all 183, and instead I picked one study that stood out as I scrolled through: Lead tolerant endophyte Trametes hirsuta improved the growth and lead accumulation in the vegetative parts of Triticum aestivum L.
In this fascinating study, the researchers found T. hirsuta grows as an endophyte (a fungus growing mutualistically inside a plant) in the invasive, edible plant Lambs quarters (Chenopodium album). I had no idea that species of Trametes were endophytic, but as I browsed the literature I found multiple studies substantiated the claim, and that even Turkey Tail (T. versicolor) can be endophytic. Foundational pillars of my fungal knowledge crumbled to the ground, again.
That was a discovery in itself, but the researchers took it a step further when they noticed the plant grew in lead-contaminated soil. They wanted to see if the fungus helped with the plant’s ability to tolerate these unsavory conditions. They inoculated wheat plants (Triticum aestivum L.) with T. hirsuta in lead-rich soil and found that the plants with the fungal endophyte grew larger (and produced higher yields) than the control plants not inoculated with the fungus. The inoculated plants also absorbed more lead. The researches concluded that not only does T. hirsuta help wheat grow, but there is also potential for the fungus to be used in bioremediation projects to remove lead from soils.
The latin Trametes means “one who is thin” and hirsuta means “coarsely hairy”.
Ecology
In addition to living endophytically, the fungus is saprobic and decomposes dead hardwood. The mushrooms grow during the summer and fall but persist throughout the winter until the next growing season. Despite this longevity, the mushrooms are annuals and will be replaced by a new flush of mushrooms the following year (some polypores are perennials and just grow a new pore surface on the existing bracket).
iNaturalist suggests the fungus grows on every continent outside Antarctica, but I clicked through a lot of the southern hemisphere observations and wasn’t convinced that T. hirsuta grows south of the equator. It is most frequently and commonly found in temperate forests of the northern hemisphere.
As previously mentioned, the mushroom shares similarities with a lot of northeastern fungi. Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor) and Trametes lactinea (which appears to recently have been bestowed the common name “Latte Bracket” - maybe because it turns from brown to white?) are just a couple look-a-likes. T. hirsuta has a rich color on top of the cap when young before those colors fade to a drab grey. Turkey tail, T. versicolor, retains their cap colors, has tightly crowded pores, and is typically smaller than T. hirsuta. The latte bracket, T. lactinea, fades to a bleached white and is larger both in thickness and width than T. hirsuta. The more you see and identify them the more comfortable you’ll get.
Alright, I’ve got a good feeling about some fresh spring fungi for next week,
Aubrey
References:
Kuo, M. (2010, March). Trametes hirsuta. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/trametes_hirsuta.html
https://www.messiah.edu/Oakes/fungi_on_wood/poroid%20fungi/species%20pages/Trametes%20hirsuta.htm
Malik A, Butt TA, Naqvi STA, Yousaf S, Qureshi MK, Zafar MI, Farooq G, Nawaz I, Iqbal M. Lead tolerant endophyte Trametes hirsuta improved the growth and lead accumulation in the vegetative parts of Triticum aestivum L. Heliyon. 2020 Jul 4;6(7):e04188. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04188. PMID: 32671237; PMCID: PMC7339007.