Artist's Conk

Ganoderma applanatum

Inedible

Also called artist's bracket, bear bread.

The artist's conk is a large, woody shelf fungus on hardwood logs and trunks. Its white pore surface darkens wherever it is scratched, so people draw and etch pictures on it. It is perennial, adding a new layer of tubes each year.

A flat, shelf-like artist's conk with a gray-brown top and white edge on a tree base

The tell

A large, flat, hard bracket whose white underside turns dark brown instantly where scratched.

Field marks

What to look at

Cap, underside and stem show in a photo. The spore print does not, and it is often the deciding check.

Cap
Flat, semicircular to hoof-shaped bracket, hard and woody. Top dull gray to brown, lumpy with concentric ridges, often dusted with cocoa-brown spores.
Underside
White to cream pore surface with tiny pores, bruising dark brown immediately when scratched or touched.
Stem
None. Attaches broadly to the wood.
Flesh
Brown, corky to woody, with layers of tubes from previous years visible when cut.
Spore print
Brown.
Size
Bracket 3 to 20 inches (8 to 50 cm) wide or larger, and 1 to 4 inches (2.5 to 10 cm) thick.

Where and when

Where and when it grows

Habitat
Hardwood and mixed forests, on logs, stumps and the trunks of dead or weakened trees.
Grows on
Dead and living hardwood, occasionally conifers.
Season
Year-round. Brackets are perennial and grow new pore layers each year.
Range
Across North America; eastern collections are sometimes separated as Ganoderma megaloma.

Lookalikes

What the artist's conk gets confused with

Each card says how to tell the two apart.

  3. Red-belted conk (Fomitopsis mounceae)

    Hoof-shaped with a reddish band near the edge and a cream pore surface that does not darken sharply when scratched. Common on conifers, less often on hardwoods.

Edibility

What the field guides say

Inedible

Field guides list the artist's conk as inedible because it is hard and woody. It causes white rot in the heartwood of the trees it grows on. Its scratched pore surface keeps the marks permanently once dried, which is why artists use it as a drawing surface.

This page states what field guides record. It is not advice to eat, taste or handle anything, and a photo cannot settle edibility. If someone has eaten a wild mushroom that may be toxic, call poison control (1-800-222-1222 in the US) right away, before symptoms start: the deadliest species act hours later.

FAQ

Questions about the artist's conk

Why is it called artist's conk?

Scratching the white underside leaves dark brown lines that stay permanent once the bracket dries. People have used it for drawings and etchings for generations.

Is artist's conk edible?

Field guides list it as inedible because it is woody. It is not known to be toxic.

How old is an artist's conk?

The bracket is perennial and adds a new layer of tubes each year, so a large conk can be many years old. The layers are visible in a cross section.

Sources

Where these facts come from

  1. Ganoderma applanatum

    MushroomExpert.com

  2. Ganoderma applanatum

    Fungi Growing on Wood, Gary Emberger (MushroomExpert.com)

  3. Artist Conk

    Missouri Department of Conservation

  4. Ganoderma applanatum

    Index Fungorum

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