Very tough, small to very large agaric, growing on wood. Pileus white, pale, brown or grey, not viscid; surface finely tomentose at first but soon quite smooth. Stipe lateral or absent. Partial veil remnants absent. Lamellae thin and crowded. Spores hyaline, non-amyloid, smooth; germ pore absent. Cystidia absent, but acute-tipped binding hyphae project into the hymenium. Hyphal system trimitic. Clamp connections present.

Very close to Lenzites, and placed by some authors in that genus. The lamellae are quite shallow (only up to 6 mm deep), thin and crowded, and within the hymenium there are often labyrinthine (or even tubular-poroid) inter-lamellar areas. The very large (to 350 mm wide) pale pileus that is smooth at maturity distinguishes this from Gloeophyllum, which also differs in the brown context that darkens in KOH, and the production of a brown rot.

Trametes Fr., Fl. Scan. 339 (1835).

Artolenzites Falck.

One species: Trametes elegans (= Lenzites, = Artolenzites, = Daedalea palisotii).

There are about 20 other Australian species in Trametes, all of which are poroid.

Trametes elegans (Spreng. : Fr.) Fr., Epicr. Syst. Mycol. 492 (1838).

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

In native forests.

On wood.

Saprotrophic (white rot).

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 T. elegans (as Daedalea palisoti)]

Gilbertson, R.L. & Ryvarden, L. (1987), North American Polypores. Volume 2. Fungiflora, Oslo. [Description and Microcharacters of T. elegans]

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 T. elegans (as Lenzites)]

Quanten, E. (1997), The Polypores (Polyporaceae s.l.) of Papua New Guinea. National Botanic Garden of Belgium, Meise. [Description and Microcharacters of T. elegans (as Lenzites)]

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