Homeowners may not know poria incrassata by its fancy name, but they’ll know when it becomes an unwanted houseguest. The house-eating fungus looks like orange pancake batter and quickly makes itself at home. It can destroy an entire structure within months.
“When poria does invade a house, it’s almost always catastrophic,” Mississippi State University wood technology professor Terry Amburgey said at poriaincrassata.com. “The fungus will infiltrate a foundation, wood or concrete, and pretty soon the entire house goes.”
What makes the fungus so voracious is that it can function relatively far from a moisture source, secreting its own enzyme onto the wood that turns it to mush.
Poria shows up mostly in southern states, and has been found elsewhere in the U.S., according to poriaincrassata.com. Some experts believe the forest dirts used by landscapers from around the world originally spread the mold to domestic homes.
But no matter how it got there, once it arrives it spells trouble for homeowners. “It’s… the most devastating wood-decaying fungus of houses that we know of,” UC Riverside plant pathology professor John Menge told the Times.
