UPDATE: Perhaps this is a specimen of Trichaptum biforme?

As my wife and our daughters were walking through the woods, we came upon a recently downed oak tree right across the path that we normally travel.

From it came this horrible stink like very pungent rotting wood, and we couldn’t figure out exactly what was making it… until we spied the cross-section.

This is a great example that shows how shelf mushrooms and other mycological decomposers grow within trees, as you can see the white rot and mycellium of the turkey-tail like mushrooms that were growing out of its sides.

It’s also interesting to note, that this kind of mycellial growth is being harnessed to grow Styrofoam substitutes that may one day replace non-biodegradable packing materials. 🙂

(Which don’t smell bad 🙂 )