Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

Thank you for identifying the last fungus to Phellinus gilvus.

I attached 2 more photos I assumed were Phellinus gilvus,  that I took from coast live oak in a park in Santa Barbara earlier in 2024.

Is this set and the previous photos both Phellinus gilvus? They look much different. 

Thanks

Robert Weiss 

Falcon guides Book author

Robert Weiss, Photo taken in santa barbara park - June 5, 2024

Curator Response

Hi Robert,

As with the previous question to which you refer, we forwarded this fungal query to Bob Cummings, who teaches in the Botany Department at Santa Barbara City College in the Biological Sciences. Here's his response:

"Once again I reached out to Noah Siegel for his opinion: Fuscoporia gilva (aka Phellinus gilvus).

Remember that Noah's best guess for the conk on the valley oak was Fomitiporia (?)fissuratus. Fomitiporia is a relatively newly formed genus, and is probably related to Fuscoporia gilva.

These darn conks are a challenging lot, especially as field guides are based on gross morphology! Without genetic analysis, we just can't offer a positive ID."