Trametes versicolor

Trametes versicolor, commonly known as turkey tail, is a bracket fungus primarily growing on dead and some live tree trunks. It is one of the common large fungi, sporting varied colours on the upper side of its cap. These colours range in browns from buff to cinnamon or red-brown, always in concentric arcs of gradual or abrupt change in shade.

The surface above is finely velvety, fuzzy or hairy. Its tiny pores are just visible, about 3 to 8 per millimetre, the pore tubes about 1,5 mm deep. The fresh mushroom is thin and flexible.

This fungus has no medicinal value. It is saprobic, feeding on mainly dead hardwoods, which means it degrades the organic matter and can be active all year round.

The mushrooms geographic distribution is throughout the world, commonly in North America, Europe, Australia and Africa, including South Africa. This photo was taken on the farm Spookberg in the Langkloof (iNaturalist; www.mushroomexpert.com; Wikipedia).