Meripilus sumstinei (Murrill) M. J. Larsen & Lombard 1988

Grifola sumstinei Murrill, Bull. Torrey Club 31 : 335. 1904
A very large plant resembling G. frondosa in habit and general appearance, but with fewer and broader pileoli, darker surface and darker hymenium. Pileus imbricate -multiplex, 20 X 30 cm. ; pileoli flabelliform to spatulate, 6-8 X 6-8 X 0.3-0.5 cm. ; surface radiaterugose, finely tomentose, lightto dark-brown ; margin very thin, fissured and strongly inflexed when dry : context white, fibrous, fleshy-tough to almost leathery, 0.3 cm. thick * tubes 0.2 cm. long, 7 to a mm., at first fuliginous, becoming pallid at maturity, polygonal irregular, edges very thin and fragile, becoming lacerate : spores globose, smooth, hyaline', thin-walled, copious, 5 }i : stipe tubercular, woody, blackish below, connate-ramose, lightercolored, passing insensibly into the pileoli above.
Type locality : Pennsylvania.
Habitat : About old stumps and trunks of deciduous trees.
Distribution : New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, and I^ouisiana.

Meripilus sumstinei, commonly known as the giant polypore or the black-staining polypore, is a species of fungus in the family Meripilaceae. Originally described in 1905 by William Alphonso Murrill as Grifola sumstinei, it was transferred to Meripilus in 1988. It is found in North America, where it grows in large clumps on the ground around the base of oak trees and tree stumps. The mushroom is edible.