Looking up the brackets

There was another pile of brash that I investigated on New Year's Day...

 

... in which I found this stick. 

Clearly something fungal going on there, but what?

I guessed from the way it was growing that it would be some kind of bracket fungi but, if I'm honest, there are a lot that all look kind of the same to me. These little white growths didn't give me much to go on except for the fact the underside was covered in minute pores - just visible to the naked eye.

Not wanting to be completely defeatist, I decided to take it home. And left it by the back door in the rain, to see if it would do anything.

Well, it hasn't done a lot. But the little growths which were completely white have turned brown on the upper surface.

After some considerable time leafing through pages of bracket fungi in the books, I've convinced myself that the features I've observed are a good match for Hazel Bracket (Skeletocutis nivea) - a small, common bracket found on small branches and twigs of deciduous trees.

And here's what those minute pores look like under the microscope I've recently obtained; like a cross between a golf ball and the moon:

For the record
Date: 01/01/2016
Location: Tottington Wood
Grid reference: TQ216126
Added to FRDBI: 13/02/2017