Chondrostereum purpureum

(Pers.) Pouzar.

Developing and guttating fruiting bodies on a horse chestnut stump at Wrest Park, Bedfordshire.
On a recently cut surface on crack willow in Basildon, Essex
On a declining veteran beech pollard adjacent to Mensularia nodulosa in the New Forest, Hampshire
Over-mature brackets with the velvet upper surface on hawthorn in Hockley Woods, Essex
Senescent fruiting bodies cracking beneath on fallen birch in Gusted Hall Wood, Essex

Developing and guttating fruiting bodies on a horse chestnut stump at Wrest Park, Bedfordshire.
On a recently cut surface on crack willow in Basildon, Essex
On a declining veteran beech pollard adjacent to Mensularia nodulosa in the New Forest, Hampshire
Over-mature brackets with the velvet upper surface on hawthorn in Hockley Woods, Essex
Senescent fruiting bodies cracking beneath on fallen birch in Gusted Hall Wood, Essex
A cerebral mass of fruit bodies on chestnut in Southend, UK.
Over-mature and senescent fruit bodies at the base of hawthorn in Wickford, UK.
Resupinate developing fruit bodies on blackthorn in the New Forest, UK.
Developing clusters on the cut surface of crack willow in Laindon, UK.
Resupinate developing fruit bodies on chestnut in Bedfordshire, UK.

Common name

Silver leaf.

Often found on

A wide array of broadleaved species.

Sometimes found on

conifers.

Location

Across the entire structure of the living tree – often on pruning cut surfaces. Persists on dead trees and tree parts.

Description

Annual. Found flat against the wood or as brackets. Small but often abundant – may cover entire areas of the tree. Begins a mauve-purple with a whitish rim and develops a downy whitish upper surface if it develops into a bracket. Can exude purple water droplets. Desiccates by shrinking slightly and developing a much whiter upper surface and darker mauve beneath.

Confused with

Trametes versicolor (when senescent – this fungus has visible pores).

Significance

Attributed to a white rot of the wood. Can act parasitically and cause host decline / death. Considered at times a latent pathogen that can widely and abundantly colonise following host tree stress. When isolated to pruning wounds, the colonisation may be less damaging – unless on fruit trees, where damage can become significant and sometimes rapidly. Extensive limb colonisations are suggestive of limb decline – the same notion applies to trunks, where dysfunctional columns develop.