Very tough, medium to large agaric, growing on wood. Pileus white, pale, yellow, brown or grey, not viscid; surface smooth or hairy. Stipe absent. Spores hyaline, non-amyloid, smooth; germ pore absent. Cystidia absent, but the binding hyphae project into the hymenium. Hyphal system trimitic. Clamp connections present.

Among lamellate fungi with very tough texture and stipe absent, Trametes elegans is very similar (and is sometimes placed in the genus Lenzites); it usually has labyrinthine areas within an otherwise lamellate hymenium, and the lamellae are very thin and narrow (up to 6 mm deep compared to up to 20 mm deep in Lenzites). Gloeophyllum is also very similar, but it has a brown or grey (not white or pale) pileus and rusty or yellow-brown pileus context that darkens in KOH. See also comments under Gloeophyllum about the genus Daedalea.

Lenzites Fr., Fl. Scand. 339 (1835).

Three species: Lenzites acuta (= L. beckleri, L. tenuis), L. betulina and L. vespacea (= Daedalea aspera).

W.A., S.A., Qld, N.S.W. and Vic. (and probably also N.T. and possibly Tas.).

In native forests.

On wood.

Saprotrophic (white rot).

Breitenbach, J. & Kränzlin, F. (eds) (1986), Fungi of Switzerland. Volume 2. Non gilled fungi. Heterobasidiomycetes, Aphyllophorales, Gasteromycetes. Verlag Mykologia, Lucerne. [Illustration, Description and Microcharacters of L. betulina]

Cunningham, G.H. (1965), Polyporaceae of New Zealand, Bull. New Zealand Dept. Sci. Industr. Res. 164: 1–304. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of L. acuta (as Daedalea beckleri and D. tenuis), L. betulina and L. vespacea (as D. aspera)]

Gilbertson, R.L. & Ryvarden, L. (1986), North American Polypores. Volume 1. Fungiflora, Oslo. [Description and Microcharacters of L. betulina]

Hood, I.A. (2003), An Introduction to Fungi on Wood in Queensland. University of New England, School of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resources Management, Armidale. [Description and B&W Illustration of L. acuta]

Quanten, E. (1997), The Polypores (Polyporaceae s.l.) of Papua New Guinea. National Botanic Garden of Belgium, Meise. [Description and Microcharacters of L. acuta, L. betulina and L. vespacea]

Ryvarden, L. & Johansen, I. (1980), A Preliminary Polypore Flora of East Africa. Fungiflora, Oslo. [Description and Microcharacters of L. acuta and L. vespacea].