Trichaptum abietinum

Sporocarp
Fruiting body annual or short-lived perennial, 1-4 cm broad, up to 0.5 cm thick, flattened to slightly convex, margin wavy, forming tiers of overlapping sessile shelves; surface hairy, zonate, whitish to light-grey, usually pale purple near the margin, in age sometimes greenish from colonizing algae; flesh leathery, thin, pale brown to purplish-brown.

Hymenophore
Tubes single-seried, 1-3 mm long, pale brown; pores 2-4 per mm, circular to angular, at maturity frequently toothlike; purple when young, fading to brownish-purple.

Spores
Spores 4-6.5 x 2.5-3.0 µm, smooth, allantoid (curved cylindrical); spore print off-white.

Habitat
In overlapping tiers on dead conifer wood, found year-round, shriveling in dry weather but capable of reviving; fresh fruitings emerging from late fall to mid-winter.

Edibility
Inedible, leathery

Comments
This attractive small, leathery shelf fungus makes up in numbers for its lack of size, often dominating on conifer logs. The white, hairy, zonate cap, usually with a purplish margin when young, and purple-tinged pores make it easy to recognize, although in age the pores may breakdown to form spines causing possible confusion with species of tooth fungi. Look-alikes include Schizophyllum commune, also with a whitish, hairy cap, distinguished by a "split gill" hymenium, and Fomitopsis cajanderi, an uncommon but larger, woody polypore that has a blackish-brown cap and pinkish pore surface. A closely related species, Trichaptum biformis, (aka Hirschioporus pargamenus), grows primarily on hardwoods.