They are brown to reddish brown on top with a cream to white-colored margin, and may become 14 inches across. The upper surface may appear to have been varnished. Branches and eventually the entire tree dies as the root rotting progresses. Ganoderma lucidum A tree with fungal fruiting structures on the trunk, butt, or roots should be removed promptly if it is in a location where property damage may occur or where people or pets could be struck by falling limbs or the falling tree. The underside of the fruiting structure has millions of tiny pores in which the spores are formed.
New shelves form on the wood the following summer and autumn.
The bark where the fruiting structure forms is slightly depressed and cracked. Fruiting structures form long after most of the damage has been done. Infected trees are very prone to wind breakage even before the fungus begins to form fruiting structures and should be removed at the first sign of infection. Tiny black fungal fruiting structures dot the upper surface of the spots. Phyllosticta minima See anthracnose control above.