About Nigroporus vinosus (Berk.) Murrill
Nigroporus vinosus (Berk.) Murrill produces fruit bodies that range from annual to perennial. The caps are leathery to smooth, sometimes marked with concentric zones, and coloured reddish-brown to purplish-brown to dark violet. On the underside of the cap, the pores are extremely small, with seven or eight pores per millimetre, and the pore tubes are up to 3 mm (0.12 in) long. The pore surface shares the same colour range as the cap. The tough context is dark brown to reddish brown; it is pliable when fresh, but becomes brittle when dry. The spore print of this fungus is white, and the context has no distinct odour or taste. The hyphal system of Nigroporus vinosus is variable. As mycologist E. J. H. Corner noted, "Some collections appear to be almost trimitic; others are dimitic and, yet, others are almost monomitic with elongate intercalary skeletal cells." There are no cystidia present in the hymenium. The spores are small, measuring 3–4.5 by 1–1.5 μm. They are smooth and thin-walled, hyaline (translucent), shaped allantoid (long with rounded ends) to broadly ellipsoid, and do not react with Melzer's reagent. The spore-bearing basidia are thin-walled and club-shaped, measuring 6–10 by 3–μm. Nigroporus vinosus is a white rot fungus that usually grows on decaying hardwood wood, though it has also been recorded growing on pine. Its fruit bodies grow singly, in groups, or in overlapping clusters. This fungus has been recorded from China, India, the Philippines, Peninsular Malaysia, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Central America, South America, Cuba, and North America, where it is the only known species of Nigroporus. In Africa, it is widespread but uncommon.
