Monday’s Mushrooms. #7

PLEASE NOTE: This post is intended for sharing fun and interesting facts on mushrooms. It is NOT INTENDED to be used as a guide for identifying edible mushrooms!

Hi everyone and Happy Monday to all of you! Well, another week has gone by which means we are a week closer to spring. That’s always a plus. We had a bit of sun today, but now it is cloudy and very windy once more. The wind is from the south, though, so the temperature is rising slightly, then it drops again after tomorrow. This has sure been an up and down month for temperature.

Oh well, anyway, we are here to talk about mushrooms again, not weather. Today’s mushroom is the Thin-Maze Flat Polypore. This mushroom is also called Blushing Bracket since the underside pore surface will bruise pink to reddish when it is young. It can be found mainly on Birch and Willow and is quite flat with concentric bands on the surface.

Thin-Maze Flat Polypore.

It can be found in white, grayish, tan or dark brown colors. It can grow from 2 to 6 inches (5 to 15cm) wide and is found on dead trees, logs, stumps and branches. They help to decompose the dead wood. They can also be found year round and in my photo you can see remnants of ice around the mushroom which I discovered in the spring. Older specimens can often be found with green algae growth on them.

These mushrooms are INEDIBLE, but they are quite decorative, especially in their growing season when colors are at their best. I hope you enjoyed this brief look at another one of our mushrooms. There are actually several other mushrooms that are very similar to this one and they can sometimes be hard to tell them apart. This is a problem with many species of mushrooms which shows the importance of knowing what you pick before eating them. Have a great week everyone and God bless!

Steve. ©2026 Steve McLeod.