#1961 - Fuscoporia wahlbergii
Spotted by @purrdence while she was looking at Lord of the Rings locations.
AKA Polyporus zealandicus, Fomes robinsoniae,Trametes wahlbergii, Phellinus setulosus, Poria uncinat, Fomes senex var. hamatus, Poria victoria, Phellinus pomaceus, Fuscoporia uncinata, Fomes hamatus, Phellinus zealandicus, Fomes pomaceus, Polyporus victoriae, Scindalma zealandicum, Phellinus senex var. hamatus, Phellinus wahlbergii, Pyropolyporus robinsoniae and Fomes zealandicus. Some of that is no doubt due to genera being split up or renamed, but I suspect a good deal of it is due to mycologists discovering that what they thought were different species, scattered worldwide, were all the same thing. Pyropolyporus robinsoniae, for example, was only known from a single decaying tree in Jamaica.
That said, it has been showing up well outside its previous range in recent decades - Buckinghamshire in the UK for example, when its nearest known site was in the Canary Islands. It’s not clear why it’s only spreading now, but in the case of the UK sighting mentioned above, the fungus remains so rare and scattered that the spores probably blew in (possibly on dust from the Sahara) rather then arriving as an existing infection in an exotic plant or timber, and found the warmer weather to its liking.
This bracket fungus is still mostly a tropical/subtropical species with tough, woody fruitbodies up to 55 cm wide and 30 cm out from the tree. It infects a wide range of host trees.
