Red Cap Polypore     Subtribe

This is a key to gilled mushrooms, that is, mushrooms having a definite cap with a fertile surface consisting of gills. The fruiting body usually also has a stem, although that may be lateral or absent (usually, then, the mushroom is growing from wood). You can use this key to identify mushrooms that you find.

Fertile surface usually a layer of vertical tubes, of which the mouths are visible as pores on the underside of the cap or shelf.
Fruiting bodies usually tougher or harder than the "normal" gilled mushrooms, being leathery, corky, or woody. But they can be quite tender while actively growing
Once grown, they do not decay easily, remaining on the substrate for months or years
They often grow on wood, although a few are terrestrial (even those are usually growing on buried wood)
Fruiting body is usually a flat shelf, or hoof-shaped, protruding directly from the substrate, although sometimes it may have a short stalk.
Some forms never grow away from the substrate at all, so that all that is visible of the fruiting body are the pores.
Sometimes the pores are so minute that the fertile surface seems solid, until you look closely

Growing on wood

The pores red, pink, or orange-red, or the cap at least partially one of those colors

Diagnosis

• Cap at least partly red, pink or red-orange
  
• Pore surface white to pale buff, but may discolor reddish

Narrow down your identification:

• Fruiting bodies flexible, hairy, duplex.
  
• Pores 1-3 per mm, pore-walls deteriorating in age to resemble a daedaloid hymenophore

• Entire cap red, pink, or reddish-brown
  
• Fruiting body fleshy, not hard or tough; if fresh, exuding a red, blood-like juice when cut or squeezed
  
• Walls of each tube separate; tubes often of different length, giving the fertile surface a tongue-like appearance

Fruiting body 3-15" across, cap surface with a reddish resinous crust that can be red, brown or black, but is usually red near the margin, sometimes zonate. Pores minute (3-5 per mm), bruising yellow

Lookalikes: Ganoderma     Section Entire cap surface (except for white margin) orange, orange-brown or reddish-brown, shiny as if varnished (reddish-brown spores may accumulate on top of the cap and partially hide this feature) Pore surface may gradually discolor with age, but not quickly upon bruising Laetiporus     Genus Pore surface white or bright yellow Cap surface somewhat furry when young; usually bright yellow or orange, but may be a pink or brownish plum color

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