Multicoloured Bracket Fungus

This Bracket fungus reminded me of a greenlip Abalone.  The Trametes Versicolor is a polypore mushroom found all over the world, trametes means skinny, and versicolor means multi-coloured.  The cap is leathery and usually ranges in colour from light to dark brown interspersed with black.  But like this one, it can have areas with algae growing on it making it look green.  Hairs on the surface give it a velvety look.  According to Wikipedia, Chinese and Japanese have used this mushroom for its medicinal properties for a long time.  The fertile undersurface is white when fresh like this patch I found on another log.

Medicinal Properties

Polysaccharide-K (Kresin, PSK, PSP) is a cancer drug derived from Trametes Versicolor. Its benefits are invaluable. It is used with chemotherapy when treating cancer patients and reduces the negative impact of the drugs used in chemotherapy.  The Health and Welfare Ministry of Japan approved the drug in the 1980s.  The main cancers the drug has helped tackle are stomach cancer and colorectal cancer.  It has also dealt with non-small cell lung carcinoma and small cell carcinoma which affects lungs.  There are more medical links below.

http://www.mushroomnutrition.com/trametes-versicolor

http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/complementaryandalternativemedicine/dietandnutrition/coriolus-versicolor

http://www.naturalnews.com/025455_coriolus_cancer_supplement.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracket_fungus