Panus     Genus

This is a key to gilled mushrooms, that is, mushrooms having a definite cap with a fertile surface consisting of gills. The fruiting body usually also has a stem, although that may be lateral or absent (usually, then, the mushroom is growing from wood). You can use this key to identify mushrooms that you find.

Fruiting body containing fibers (usually in the stalk)

Spore print "light-colored": white or buff, sometimes tinged with pink or tan. Greenish and (except for the Russulales) yellow spore prints also go here
Stalk fibrous, not fracturing like a piece of chalk

None of the special features distinguishing the other white-spored genera:
Gills not free, as in the Lepiotas and Amanitas
Basidia not extra-long, as in the Hygrophoraceae
Spores smooth, except for Lentinellus

Growing on trees or dead wood, leaves, or sticks, or organic debris, often in moss

Assume a lateral stem, unless otherwise noted in the diagnoses below
If laterally stemmed, then gills strongly decurrent

Panus     Genus     Fries

Diagnosis

• Cap often furry or virgate; usually over 4" across
  
• All purple-tinged collections go here
  
• Fruiting body tough to extremely tough
  
• Margin usually becoming wavy and irregular in age

• Spores inamyloid

Comments

Narrow down your identification:

Cap up to 6" across; sometimes minutely furry; purple when young, fading to tan; surface often cracking into tiny scales in age
Stalk thick, tough, well developed; velvety, at least when young; colored like cap
Gills decurrent; colored like cap; often forking near the stalk

Cap up to 3" across; densely fuzzy; reddish or purplish brown when young, fading to tan in age
Stalk very stubby; colored and fuzzed like the cap
Gills white to tan
On deciduous wood

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