Small to medium agaric, growing in litter or mulch or on wood, with a white or pale pink spore print. Pileus pale, brown, red or pink, green (due to algal growth) or grey, not viscid; surface hairy. Lamellae split along the edge. Stipe lateral or absent. Partial veil remnants absent. Spores hyaline, non-amyloid, smooth; germ pore absent. Cheilocystidia absent. Lamellar trama regular. Pileipellis a trichoderm. Clamp connections present.

The lamellae that are split lengthwise along the edge are very distinctive. Other white-spored agarics lacking or with a lateral stipe and a hairy pileus, such as Chaetocalathus (very small), Gloeophyllum (woody) or Lentinellus (with serrate lamellae edges) all lack a split edge to the lamellae.

Schizophyllum Fr., Syst. Mycol. 1: 330 (1821).

One species: Schizophyllum commune.

Schizophyllum commune Fr. : Fr., Syst. Mycol. 1: 330 (1821).

All States and Territories.

Widely distributed in native forests, and also parks and gardens.

On wood, litter, and occasionally other organic substrates such as straw bales. Sometimes on dead bark of living trees.

Saprotrophic.

Fuhrer, B. (2005), A Field Guide to Australian Fungi. Bloomings Books, Hawthorn. [Description and Illustration of S. commune]

Grey, P. & Grey, E. (2005), Fungi Down Under. Fungimap, South Yarra. [Description, Illustration and Map for S. commune]

Grgurinovic, C.A. (1997a), Larger Fungi of South Australia. The Botanic Gardens of Adelaide and State Herbarium and The Flora and Fauna of South Australia Handbooks Committee, Adelaide. [Description, Illustration and Microcharacters of S. commune]

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 S. commune]

McCann, I.R. (2003), Australian Fungi Illustrated. Macdown Productions, Vermont. [Illustration of S. commune]

Young, A.M. (2005b), A Field Guide to the Fungi of Australia. University of New South Wales Press, Sydney. [Description and B&W Illustration of S. commune]