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Red Belt Conch
Fomitopsis pinicola
41.759, -124.221
Field Notes
Description:
Fomitopsis pinicola, is a stem decay fungus. Its conk (fruit body) is known as the red belt conk.
Description
Cap is hoof-shaped or triangular, hard and tough texture, up to 30–40 x 25 x 10 cm. Its surface is more or less smooth, at first orange-yellow with a white margin, later dark reddish to brown and then frequently with orange margin. The pore surface is pale yellow to leather-brown, 3–4 pores per mm. It grows as thick shelves on live and dead coniferous or (less common) deciduous trees.[2]
The fruiting body of Fomitopsis pinicola is called the conk. It is a woody, pileate fruiting body with pores lined with basidia on its underside. As in other polypores, the fruiting body is perennial with a new layer of pores produced each year on the bottom of the old pores. The pores are whitish when young and become somewhat brownish in age.[3] This mushroom is inedible due to its woody texture, but it is useful as tinder.
Habitat:
Found in Redwood Forest Hiouchi, California.
The species is common throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere. It is a decay fungus that serves as a small-scale disturbance agent in coastal rainforest ecosystems. It influences stand structure and succession in temperate rainforests. It performs essential nutrient cycling functions in forests.[1]
Notes:
Not Edible. Has Medicinal properties see 2nd link.
Has been used by natives to keep embers burning while carring to next camp site. Good tinder.
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