Conifer Blueing Bracket - Postia caesia

The fruit-bodies are typically 1 to 5 cm across and up to 1 cm thick, and the upper surface is covered in fine hairs and radial wrinkles that create a slightly wavy margin. The upper surface is white initially but develops a blue-grey tinge as it matures, and it also blues fairly soon after being handled. The pores are white and spaced 4 to 6 per mm.

Please provide photographs and state size.  Please also note the host species. Because of its unusual colour and spongy texture, Postia caesia is unlikely to be confused with any other common bracket fungus if it is found on conifer timber.

In Britain and Ireland the Conifer Blueing Bracket is saprobic, mainly on the well-rotted dead wood of coniferous trees, and most often seen on decaying felled spruce trunks. It is a fungus of damp, shaded places, and so it is much more often found in mature mixed woodland, conifer forests and plantations than on dead timber in more open parkland.

Brackets are visible throughout most of the year, but they release their spores in late autumn.

Widespread and fairly frequent in Britain and Ireland.

Status in Leicestershire and Rutland not known.