Polypores, as their name suggests, is a group of fungi that has pores instead of soft gills for their reproductive surfaces. They include the leathery, corky and woody brackets as well as some mushroom-shaped and crust fungi. Most polypores have a very firm texture and some are so hard that only an axe or saw can cut them!

A few polypore species have beneficial mycorrhizial relationships with trees, but most are wood rotters and some even cause disease and death to their hosts.