Abernethy Forest, Scotland, August 2023
Birch polypore (Fomitopsis betulina)
This amazing fungus has been used for thousands of years as medicine for the immune system, as antiseptic bandages, as tinder, and even to sharpen razors.
It has a number of incredible properties, including being an antiviral, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, and anti-fungal. It also contains betulinic acid, which can cause the destruction of cancer cells while not affecting healthy cells.
The one in the first picture is the perfect age for harvesting - young, not yet tough, and not yet opened out into a large hoof- or shelf-shaped body.
I dried out these young ones on a sunny windowsill and will be using them to make tea.
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FOTD #135 : red-belted conk! (fomitopsis pinicola)
the red-belted conk is a polypore fungus in the family fomitopsidaceae :-) it is common throughout temperate zones in europe & asia. it produces brown rot & often parasitises rainforest trees.
the big question : can i bite it??
nah, it's inedible !!
f. pinicola description :
"the cap is hoof-shaped or triangular, & sometimes shelflike. it is hard & tough, & up to 30 cm or more across & 15 cm thick. its surface is more or less smooth, at first orange-yellow with a white margin, later dark reddish to brown & then frequently with an orange margin. the pore surface is pale yellow to leather-brown, 3–4 pores per mm."
[images : source & source]
[fungus description : source]
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I mentioned birch polypore, Fomitopsis betulinus, in a different post the other day, and I thought this species deserves a post of its own because it’s a very interesting species particularly from an ethnomycological perspective. I don’t see this species often, but I’ve noticed it more frequently in the last couple years. I think this is because birch trees locally have been very stressed and experiencing dieback lately on account of climate-change related heatwaves and subsequent bronze birch borer infestation. Birch polypore attacks weakened trees and kills them within a few years, meaning the trees in these photos are doomed.
It’s also a very pretty fungus, in my opinion, with a soft, suede-like upper with fawn dappling and a creamy spore surface. Someone other than me pulled these ones off a tree! I’m really not sure why, because this species doesn’t have any current ethnomycological uses, so maybe they were just curious and wanted to look at it.
This species was one of the fungi carried by “Ötzi the Iceman,” a Chalcolithic man murdered in the Ötztal Alps around 3230 BCE, whose body was found in 1991.
Ötzi carried a bit of birch polypore on a strap, and researchers think he likely used it to combat a whipworm infection from which he was suffering. Birch polypore used to be used as a dewormer; it is a laxative itself, but would often be combined with even stronger laxative materials. He also was carrying some Fomes fomentarius, tinder fungus, which was, as its common name suggests, usually used as tinder.
In more recent times, dried birch polypore was used to sharpen knives, giving it its other common name, razor strop fungus. Some folks still use it for this purpose today, and as tinder just like Fomes fomentarius, but right now that’s more of a novelty practice you’ll find in bushcrafting classes than anything else.
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Reticulated taildropper slugs on a red-belted conk
Prophysaon andersoni / Fomitopsis mounceae
Eagle River Nature Park, Malakwa, BC
16 Sep 2022
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Abernethy Forest, Scotland, August 2023
Birch polypore (Fomitopsis betulina)
Throughout the summer, both in Scotland and back in Cambridgeshire, I made it a mission to find and dehydrated large amounts of birch polypore - a very common and easily identified fungi that, while it is technically edible, its benefits are far better enjoyed via a tea. I've been drinking this once or twice a week all winter and am so happy I took the time to build up a store!
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I often relate to the anti fungal properties of Fomitopsis betulina
I to have the urge to kill my own kind
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