Artist's bracket (Ganoderma applanatum)

Artist's bracket (Ganoderma applanatum) is a species of fungi in Polyporaceae, basidiocarp sessile, arranged as a cork or wood, applanate, semicircular fan shaped with a length of 4-55 cm, up to 40 cm in diameter and 1.5-55 cm thick at the base.

G. applanatum has a pale gray to dark brown top surface, crusted with concentric zonation, sulfate, covered with a layer of chocolate and brown spores. Margins 1-10 mm, thick, sterile, round, turn brown when dry. Whitish pore surface, rough, 4-5 per mm, round to ovate.

Artist's brackets grow on woody logs or decayed roots and live trees with humus-rich soil, layers of twigs and rotting matter in the soil, producing basidiomata from summer to late fall.

This fungus is mainly a parasite that enters mainly through wounds in the trunk or roots and causes root rot in many broadleaf plants, various species of coniferous trees that cause white rot on angiosperms.

Kingdom: Fungi
Phylum: Basidiomycota
Subphylum: Agaricomycotina
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Polyporales
Family: Polyporaceae
Genus: Ganoderma
Species: Ganoderma applanatum

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