Turkeytail

Turkeytail is a colourful bracket fungus that appears to be made of concentric circles of banded colour, growing in tiered clumps.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Trametes versicolor
Family: 
Bracket Fungi
Family Latin name: 
POLYPORACEAE
Category: 
Fungi

Species description

Species description

Turkeytail fungi is found throughout the world. (It has an alternate Latin name of Coriolos versicolor.) It's a colourful bracket fungus that appears to be made of concentric circles of banded colour, growing in tiered clumps. These tough brackets have a leathery feel. Colours range from brown to yellow, purple to green. Their outer margins are always pale or white. 

In Japan, this mushroom has been approved for treating cancers and immune deficiencies. In China, preparations of this fungus have been used for over 2,000 years as an enhancer of good health and promoter of longevity.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)

Details

Species family information

Bracket fungi (also called shelf fungi) appear on tree trunks (living or dead) to produce woody, bracket-shaped fruiting bodies. The majority of this family of fungi have a specific preference for either deciduous or coniferous trees, with many individuals preferring just an individual species of tree. Some that grow on live trees can grow to quite dramatic life spans, some even more than 80 years. Maximum growth is usually during the autumn.

Category information

Of surviving life forms, the Bacteria are the most ancient, followed by the Archaea. These two groups, the Prokaryotes, lack a membrane-bound nucleus in their cells. From this lineage evolved the Eukaryotes, possessing a nucleus in their cells, two types of which evolved, the Unikonta, with a single appendage (flagellum) for propulsion, and the Bikonta, with two appendages (flagella). The Unikonta gave rise to first the Fungi, then the Animals. The Bikonta evolved into the Algae and Plants. The Fungi therefore share a common ancestor with the Animals, whereas neither is closely related to plants. For this reason, vegans and vegetarians should not eat mushrooms or other fungi, nor eat bread or consume alcoholic drinks because they are prepared using yeast, a fungus.

Colloquially, the word ‘mushroom’ is used for edible species and ‘toadstool’ for poisonous species, but there is actually no scientific distinction between these words. Mycologists, the scientists who study fungi, use the term ‘mushroom’ for all species that have the familiar fruiting bodies that we see above ground. Many fungal groups do not have fruiting bodies, and they have a terminology of their own.

Unlike plants fungi can’t make their own food, but must derive it from plants or animals, living or dead. Fungi called saprophytes serve an important function decomposing and recycling dead matter back into the soil. Symbiotic fungi grow on living organisms, but do not damage them, whereas parasitic fungi do harm their living hosts.