bracket fungus

plural bracket fungi

1. Any of various fungi of the family Polyporaceae, whose fruiting bodies form on trees and resemble shelves or brackets.

   2019, Katie Scott, Ester Gaya (editors), Fungarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Bonnier Books (Big Picture Press), While most mushrooms produce their spores inside gills, bracket fungi (or polypores) form sporing bodies with pores or tubes on their underside.

   2 more examples

   One class, bracket fungus, may be used for decorative purposes. Pictures may be drawn on its flat surface. The bracket fungus is found most often in the shape of a semicircular bracket, varying in size from 1 in. to 2 ft. in diameter and attached to dead stumps and fallen logs—beech-trees particularly.

   1921 February, Anthony E. Zipprich, “Drawing on Fungus-a Novel and Pleasing Art”, in Popular Science, volume 98, number 2, Modern Publishing Company, page 128

   Some bracket fungi can utilize most of the wood, and because they leave it white, spongy, and fibrous are called "white rots."

   1994, Marcia Bonta, Appalachian Autumn, University of Pittsburgh Press, page 160

   Synonyms: polypore, shelf fungus