Sheep Polypore

Albatrellus avinus

Old coniferous, deciduous and mixed forests, especially spruce stands. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies massive, fleshy. Cap 5-12 (15) cm, irregularly shaped, surface white, greyish, greyish-yellowish, fissured, cracked. Tubes white, yellowish when old. Stem 3-5 (7)x1—3 cm, sometimes eccentric, white, firm. Flesh white, soft, mild in taste, with a pleasant smell. Characteristic features: a mushroom of old-growth forests (spruce and pine stands), greyish-yellowish fruiting bodies, several fused at the stems. Grows in small groups, likes calcareous soil. Edible when young. Rare. The Fused Polypore (Albatrellus confluens) is very similar to the Sheep Polypore, only its caps and stems are fused even more into clumps, and the stem is branched. Edible. Rare.