Red-belted Polypore

    
Photo from 
https://grownandgathered.wordpress.com/tag/northwest-polypores/
Red-belted polypores (fomitopsis pinicola) are a type of polypore that grow in conifer forests in the Northen Hemisphere.  They are a perennial that is extremely durable, growing additional tubes every year. Prevalent in the NW, these mushrooms are often found on dead or dying Hemlock and Douglas fir, and look like shelves rather than umbrellas – their caps are fairly flat (though they do slope gently), with the pores on the underside of the mushroom, sloping downward more steeply.

   The red-belted polypores are easy to distinguish from other polypores, as their reddish-brown color is surrounded by a cream edge (they are browner in youth, redder as they reach maturity, and can turn nearly black when they are very old).  They are non-varnished on top, and the cream surface on the underside of the mushroom does not bruise easily (unlike the polypore known as the artist’s conk).   Polypores are fairly recognizable in their shape (shelf-like), durability (durable and woody), and location on dead/dying coniferous trees, (though they are not the only mushrooms that grow on such tree), but once you have identified a mushroom as a polypore, almost always safe to ingest.