Artist's fungus

Artist's fungus is a bracket fungus, also known as Ganoderma applanatum, which derives its name from its peculiarity of its use as a drawing medium for artists. It grows as a mycelium within the wood of living and dead trees mostly found in both Eurasia and North America region. It has a reddish-brown upper surface and a pale lower surface on which scratches remain visible as dark spots. It forms fruiting bodies that are up to 30–100 centimetres across, hard as leather, woody-textured, and inedible in raw form. They are white at first but soon turn dark red-brown. Brown spores are released from the pores on the underside of the fruiting body. The fruiting bodies are perennial, and may persist for multiple years, increasing in size and forming new layers of pores as they grow. It belongs to the family Ganodermataceae, and class Hymenomycetes.