Hairy Curtain Crust

The Hairy Curtain Crust gets it’s name from the hairy upper surface and rippled edges, which look like partly drawn curtains.

Individual brackets are 2 to 8 cm across and have irregularly wavy edges. Colours are zoned and usually paler towards the margin, darken with age and can vary considerably with location. Generally yellow, orange and brown are most common and they can often carry bands of dark green algae. They have no stem.

Stereum, the generic name, means tough, and crust fungi in this genus certainly can be tough. Hirsutum means hairy and they are distinctly hairy when the fruitbodies are young and fresh. They do lose the hairs with age and become smoother.

It is common to see the Hairy Curtain Crust growing in the form of tiers of reflexed crusts or brackets.

They can be seen all through the year, on dead hardwood trees and fallen branches and occasionally on conifers. They shed their spores in autumn.

A common and widespread species in Britain.