Walking up through Fox Wood at Dene Park today as the main woods were so busy, I came across a partly buried log, about a foot in diameter, with what appeared to be a couple of old Daedalea quercina brackets on the end and two very white lumpy brackets on the side.
I suspect these to be a Postia species, based on the superficial resemblance to a couple of images in the ID books.
Starting off with the solid features of species in the genus, I measured the depth of the tubes at just under 1 cm. The two members of the species characterised by tending towards blue colourations on the cap, Postia caesia and Postia subcaesia have much shallower tubes of the order of 6 mm or less in brackets than can often be thinner. Also no signs of blue, nor an obviously tomentose cap surface, so we I think we can fairly safely eliminate these two species.
That leaves us with Postia stiptica and Postia tephroleuca. The log should have been deciduous wood, so for an apparently white Postia, that would push us away from Postia stiptica, which grown primarily on conifers, towards Postia tephroleuca, perhaps more commonly referred to as Postia lacteus.
I tried to taste a small bit of the flesh, but didn't come away with much of any sort of taste, which again suggests P, lacteus rather than P. stiptica, generally described as distinctly astringent.
And after taking it home, there were definite tinges of grey developing on the cap surface, a third indication of Postia tephroleuca. Finally the pores appeared slightly laciniate, rather than rounded as in Postia stiptica, a feature noted for Postia tephroleuca by Geoffrey Kibby.
However are the pores far too large?? If so, could it be Aurantioporus fissilis??
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