My FungiFriday Report Card: September 18 2020

Friday.

I really kind of wanted to go back to the hidden lake in the forbidden forest again today. To try and see more of the kingfishers I watched yesterday. But it's Friday, and that means I have to find some fungi in the forest!

And so, in the late afternoon I went for a hike along my usual trail into the woods. It wasn't long until I found the star of today's show, right there on that fallen over birch trunk you see in the title image and below.

It's a socalled fomitopsis betulina, better known as "birch bracket", that's pushing it's head through the bark of the trunk. And It's pretty amazing to see how the fungus makes its way out with strength in slowness.

It starts with a little bulb that emerges from the bark and then it slowly grows wider and stretches into its typical umbrella like bracket fungus shape.

These fruit bodies can grow for about a year and will eventually create these draped caps below their bulbeuous attachment to the substrate.

As the name "birch bracket" suggest, this fungus grows exclusively on birch wood. It's a necrotrophic parasite and so it will grow on dead wood but will also infect living birches, until it kills them.

It's actually a very common fungus found throughout the entire northern hemisphere. It's not considered edible but it's been used for ages in traditional medicine, for example as a laxative to treat whipworms.

The famous "Ötzi" the Iceman, a 5 thousand year old mummy found in the Alps, carried some of it with him, supposedly for that reason.

A fungus with a bit of history. It was really interesting to find all these fruit bodies in their different stages of development and I learned a lot with a little google-fu to write this post.

And yes, after seeing this one, I finally had to make it happen. A fungus with such character, it was just begging for some #googlyeyes.

Finally, a #googlyeyes mushroom for #fungifriday. Mission accomplished!

And just in case you were wondering. Our googly friend from the past two Fridays is also still doing just fine.

And here's a bonus mushroom:

Thanks for your time!

#takemorewalks

This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io

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