The fruiting bodies are perennial, and may persist for multiple years, increasing in size and forming new layers of pores as they grow.

These layers can be distinguished in a cross section or from observation of the concentric rings on the upper surface of the fruiting body.

[1] The similar Ganoderma brownii has thicker, darker flesh, often a yellow pore surface, and larger spores than G. applanatum.

It is a common cause of decay and death of beech and poplar, and less often of several other tree genera, including alder, apple, elm, buckeye and horse chestnut, maple, oak, live oak, walnut, willow, western hemlock, Douglas fir, old or sick olive tree, and spruce.

The shelflike projection is difficult to break free, so younger animals often have to wrap their arms and legs awkwardly around a trunk and content themselves by only gnawing at the delicacy.

Older animals who succeed in breaking the fungus loose have been observed carrying it several hundred feet from its source, all the while guarding it possessively from more dominant individuals' attempts to take it away.

Both the scarcity of the fungus and the gorillas' liking of it cause many intragroup squabbles, a number of which are settled by the silverback, who simply takes the item of contention for himself.

[20] G. applanatum is known in Japan as kofuki-saru-no-koshikake (コフキサルノコシカケ),[22][23] literally meaning "powder-covered monkey's bench", and in China as shu-she-ling-zhi (树舌灵芝), where it has long been used in traditional medicines.

[32] Compared to synthetic antibiotics these compounds extracted from G. applanatum lack problems of drug resistance and side effects.