#fomitopsis

[lindagoesmushrooming]

Cecīļi Nature Trail, Latvia

[briery]

Guttation drops on a red-belted polypore (Fomitopsis pinicola), by Rowland K Willis.

[mushroomgay]

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.

[orofeaiel]

Fomitopsis

[mbhfphotos]

Guttation, Northern Red Belt Polypore

Fomitopsis mounceae

Western Washington, April 29 2022 Mary Howerton (shop)

[mushrooms-switzerland]

Birkenporling, fomitopsis betulina 28.11.21

A healthy mushroom, drying for tea.

[vandaliatraveler]

Above are a few late season gems from my trip up the Highland Scenic Highway (top to bottom): (1) a marshy area along the Cowpasture Trail at Cranberry Glades; (2) the ever-gorgeous purplestem aster (Symphyotrichum puniceum), also known as swamp aster; (3 - 4) a lavender-phased variation of narrowleaf gentian (Gentiana linearis), perhaps the loveliest and most delicate of all the autumn wildflowers in these mountains; (5 - 6) the more broadly-leaved closed bottle gentian (Gentiana andrewsii), quite striking in its own right; (7) red-belted conk (Fomitopsis pinicola), a shelf fungus parasitic on conifers; the brilliant red “haws” (berries) of dotted hawthorn (Crataegus punctata), which are edible and have a tangy-sweet flavor; a grandly-beautiful field thistle (Cirsium discolor) gone to seed; and the ripe, tart berries of large cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon), the only healthy thing I snacked on all day (the wild berries are a hundred times more pucker-worthy than the commercially-grown ones).

[lindagoesmushrooming]