![]() ![]() They grow directly on the wood with little to no stem and resemble a hoof. The mushrooms themselves are perennial, first emerging in the spring but then persisting all winter and growing larger each year. These mushrooms grow on both dead and dying wood, acting as first a parasite and then a decomposer. Identifying Tinder Polypore ( Fomes fomentarius) After a quick bit of work, I learned that I had spotted Fomes fomentarius, a medicinal mushroom whose use dates back more than 5000 years.Īlso known tinder fungus, tinder conk, tinder polypore, Iceman fungus, hoof fungus and Amadou, this little mushroom may not be a tasty edible but it has a lot of use for medicine and survival. Nonetheless, I snapped plenty of pictures and went home to consult my identification books. Though they were polypores, and growing on birch, they weren’t the “birch polypore” (fomitopsis betulina). I spotted a birch in the distance covered in polypores and went in for a closer look. I had my eye out for Chaga mushrooms and birch polypore, both of which grow on birch and are present in the winter months even up here in Central Vermont. Generally, mushroom pickings are slim in the winter time, but that doesn’t stop me from going out winter foraging. Now that’s what I call a connection to history. The tinder polypore, also known as the Iceman Conk, was one of a few wild mushrooms found on the body of a nomad found in the Swiss Alps and dated back to 3300 BC. It also has an aspect of connecting us to the past, back to our hunter-gatherer ancestors who foraged as a way of life. Foraging has a way of connecting us with nature, in that it requires the forager to learn to observe their environment in an intimate way. ![]()
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