Fomitiporia Punctata

Most species carry a familiar nickname alongside their Latin label, but Fomitiporia punctata has never picked one up — the only name it goes by is its scientific one.

It is a fungus in the kingdom Fungi, placed within the phylum Basidiomycota, class Agaricomycetes, order Hymenochaetales, and family Hymenochaetaceae. Its binomial authority citation, (P.Karst.) Murrill, records its taxonomic history: the species was first described by the Finnish mycologist P. Karsten before being transferred into the genus Fomitiporia by the American mycologist William Murrill.

That quiet taxonomic story — a species moved between genera as understanding of the group evolved — is part of what makes Fomitiporia punctata worth a second look, even without a common name to draw attention to it.

Records of Fomitiporia punctata compiled from GBIF occurrence data show a fungus that has been documented across every month of the year, with observation counts ranging from a low of 1,005 in June to a high of 2,282 in October.

Two periods stand out in the monthly pattern: a spring rise through March (2,146) and April (2,108), followed by a summer dip, and then the year's strongest showing in October (2,282). These peaks may reflect times when the fungus is more visible or more actively searched for and recorded, rather than a change in how much of it exists.

As with all GBIF-derived figures, these counts are presence observations only. They show when and how often the species has been logged, not its true abundance or the full extent of its geographic range.