''Ceriporia purpurea'' is a species of

crust fungus The corticioid fungi are a group of fungi in the Basidiomycota typically having effused, smooth basidiocarps (fruit bodies) that are formed on the undersides of dead tree trunks or branches. They are sometimes colloquially called crust fungi or pa ...

in the family

Irpicaceae The Irpicaceae are a family of mostly polypores and crust fungi in the order Polyporales. Taxonomy The family was circumscribed in 2003 by mycologists Viacheslav Spirin and Ivan Zmitrovich. The type genus is '' Irpex''. Later multi-gene phylogen ...

. It was first described by Swedish mycologist

Elias Magnus Fries Elias Magnus Fries (15 August 1794 – 8 February 1878) was a Swedish mycologist and botanist. Career Fries was born at Femsjö (Hylte Municipality), Småland, the son of the pastor there. He attended school in Växjö. He acquired ...

in 1821 as ''Polyporus purpureus''.

Marinus Anton Donk Marinus Anton Donk (14 August 1908 – 2 September 1972) was a Dutch mycologist. He specialized in the taxonomy and nomenclature of mushrooms. Rolf Singer wrote in his obituary that he was "one of the most outstanding figures of contemporary myc ...

gave the fungus its current name when he transferred it to the genus ''

Ceriporia ''Ceriporia'' is a widely distributed genus of crust fungi. Taxonomy The genus was circumscribed by Dutch mycologist Marinus Anton Donk in 1930, with '' Ceriporia viridans'' as the type species. The generic name combines the Latin word ''cera'' ...

'' in 1971. A 2016 study identified six similar ''Ceriporia'' species, referred to as the ''Ceriporia purpurea'' group: '' Ceriporia bresadolae'', the European species '' C. torpida'' and '' C. triumphalis'', and the North American species '' C. manzanitae'' and '' C. occidentalis''. ''Ceriporia purpurea'' is widely distributed in the

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

zone of

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

, where it grows exclusively on the decomposing wood of

deciduous tree In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, afte ...

s, and also in the American North-East.

References

Fungi described in 1821 Fungi of Asia Fungi of Europe Fungi of North America Irpicaceae Taxa named by Elias Magnus Fries Fungus species {{Polyporales-stub