Terrestriopolypore     Subfamily

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.

Fertile surface usually a layer of vertical tubes, of which the mouths are visible as pores on the underside of the cap or shelf.
Fruiting bodies usually tougher or harder than the "normal" gilled mushrooms, being leathery, corky, or woody. But they can be quite tender while actively growing
Once grown, they do not decay easily, remaining on the substrate for months or years
They often grow on wood, although a few are terrestrial (even those are usually growing on buried wood)
Fruiting body is usually a flat shelf, or hoof-shaped, protruding directly from the substrate, although sometimes it may have a short stalk.
Some forms never grow away from the substrate at all, so that all that is visible of the fruiting body are the pores.
Sometimes the pores are so minute that the fertile surface seems solid, until you look closely

Diagnosis

• Growing on ground

• If your terrestrial polypore doesn't key out well, try the other half of the key: it may be growing on buried wood

Narrow down your identification:

• Large (6-18" or more across), compound fruiting body with irregular caps, usually right next to a tree or even surrounding it
  
• Flesh flexible, tough but not hard

• Cap variable in size, but averaging 3-4"
  
• Flesh soft, flexible, though it may dry hard and brittle

• If your small terrestrial polypore does not fit the diagnosis for Coltricia, then you probably have a young specimen of some other genus

Lookalikes: Polyporus radicatus black, rooting stem and brown cap; solitary

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