Favoritos de joepaquin

Large, imbricate-pileate polypores growing on cottonwoods (Populus )
Flesh thick, tough-punky, cap surface slightly fibrillose to smooth.
Flesh 2.5 cm deep, tube layer 5 mm deep.
Pore mouths small, subtly angular (not perfectly round), 3-4/mm.
Fresh specimens juicy, with strong almond extract/marzipan/maraschino odor when cut.
Pores turning yellow-orange when dried.

Microscopy:
Hyphae mostly of one type, simple, unseptate, with thick walls. No clamps observed. No cystidia observed. Spores smooth, ellispoid to long-ellipsoid, 7 x 3 microns or longer. Inamyloid.

At first I thought they might be Osteina due to general appearance, but not growing on conifer, not drying bone-hard, and with different micro characters.

Comments from polypore expert Otto Miettinen:

"the fruitbody
structure, spore shape and hyphal structure point towards Polyporus (in the wide, traditional sense). The hyphae look like skeleto-binding
hyphae typical of Polyporus and the core polyporoid clade / polyporaceae
in the modern sense."

Rodent digs found throughout the area exclusively under chamise. Manzanita also present, and interior live oak within 100 feet, but digs were only under chamise. Digging revealed that the mycelial mat that truffles were found in and smelled the same dissipated with distance from chamise. Melanogaster also mixed in and more abundant. Parts of the mycelial mat smelled like Melanogaster and parts smelled like these -- distinctly of oil paint. Woodrat nest about 8 feet away.

Opening up the 2015 Cumanotus discussion again! Is this the (an) undescribed Cumanotus being worked on by Sandra Millen (http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1923165), even though it doesn't have pink tips on the cerrata? Another thought -What do you think about a possible invasive from France - Cumanotus cuenoti? The description on Sea Slug Forum (http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/cumacuen) seems to fit, but could be fevered imagination.

I found the slugs on Tubularia/ectopleura/whatever we're calling that pink-mouthed hydroid. The large one was about 1/3" long and the smaller was about 1/4" long. Note that the speckles in these photos are from crud in the water, not the nudibranchs.

These two could also be different species of Cumanotus. The smaller one attempted to mate with the larger one, which wanted none of it. Later the larger one demolished one of these hydroids (see photos).

I did see two corkscrew-shaped egg spirals though, same as last year's observations.

Interestingly, these Cumanotus cannot "stand" or glide on the flat surface of the photo box like most nudibranchs; they fell over (!) and 'swam' in an unhappy manner until put back on the hydroids. For stability, their foot had to be wrapped around a hydroid stalk.

undescribed sp first seen by @imlichentoday

found on kelp (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/194171357)
but rearing when found, detached quickly

no wind, light to no surge, night, water temp 61 F, -0.8ft tide