fungus – Forage France

What is it?

When we talk about fungi we more often than not, like so many plants and trees, are actually referring to the fruiting body of the fungi. That is to say, that the mushroom looking thing we stumble upon is actually the “flower” of the fungus. The rest of the fungus, which we cal mycelium is actually in the earth or within the host like trees, for example.

The mycelium is a network of filaments, or fibre like structures, that weave their way into and around the soil or host soaking up nutrients and moisture that it needs to survive. When the conditions are right, more often than not after some rain, the mycelium send out its fruiting body to eventually release spores as its way of reproduction. Some fruiting bodies only last a few days where others can live for 40 or 50 years, such as some members of the family of bracket fungi.

Uses

Traditional uses of this fungi was really the inspiration for this post. I have been processing amadou recently and thought you guys might like to know more about it.

Amadou is also known as mushroom leather and is used to create a very fine tinder for primitive and prehistoric methods of fire lighting. It’s valuable to people in the bushcraft community because it can catch the smallest and coldest of sparks from iron pyrite or a steel striker.

Tinder fungus such as amadou has been used as tinder since at least the time of Ötzi. Ötzi, also called the Iceman, is the well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived between 3400 and 3100 BCE. The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, hence the nickname “Ötzi”. He is Europe’s oldest known natural human mummy, and has offered an unprecedented view of Copper Age (Chalcolithic) Europeans. He was found to be carrying Amadou in his pocket. The kit he carried featured pieces of over a dozen different plants, in addition to flint and pyrite for creating sparks. Our prehistoric fire lighting kits, similar to what Ötzi carried, can be found here.[efn_note]Wikipedia entry on Otzi[/efn_note]

It is also valuable because the processing takes effort and time. The bracket is made up of three layers:

The “cuticle” is the upper surface and can be very hard and difficult to remove.
The “amadou” layer which is the jam in the sandwich.
The “pores” which are tube like structures that release the spores, a process called sporulation, during the reproductive cycle.

The removal of these two outer parts (1 & 3) is time consuming and difficult. The amadou layer then needs to be boiled for anything up to 3 days and then pummelled gently to separate the fibres and soften the “leather” this process puts a lot of people off processing it and makes it an expensive process. Some people use the boiled liquid as a tonic for an upset stomach, however it has a strong purgative effect and should be avoided.

Traditionally the fungus Forms formentarius is used to make amadou and is still considered the best, it does however grow mainly in colder northern regions and primarily on silver birch trees. Nearly all bracket fungi can be made into tinder fungus and, here in the south of England, I favour the Ganoderma australe variety, it makes a tougher leather but still catches the smallest of sparks. It is the variety we sell most of in our online shop. It also has the providence of being locally sourced and locally produced, rather than importing from further afield.

Harvesting

Removing a bracket fungi from a tree does not harm the tree in any way, the tree is already dead or dying. As previously mentioned, the bracket, is the fruiting body of the mycelium network that has already infected and started to kill the tree, causing heart wood rot. I always leave a couple of brackets on the tree so I can come back the following years to collect more. Generally speaking we don’t want the older brackets anyway as they get older they have less amadou layer and they are tougher to break into.

I hope this has given you some insight into a few uses for a bracket fungus and if you fancy giving it a go you can get your special prehistoric or primitive fire lighting kits here.

All the best,

Tom

Let us begin

Let us start with some background information about fungi and how they interact with the environment.

We all, generally, see something that has a stem and an umbrella type head and say ‘mushroom’ or ‘fungus’ however this is not really the complete fungus. What you are looking at is the fruiting body of some types of fungi (plural of fungus) which have emerged from the ground, plant, or tree.

The main part of the fungus that develops the fruiting body is known as ‘mycelium’ and lives within its hosts. Many fungi live independently in soil; others have a symbiotic or parasitic relationship with plants or animals.

Some trees use the mycelium network that runs throughout the soil to send messages to each other. When one tree is being attacked by a pest it sends an ‘i am being attacked’ signal down its trunk, along its roots and the fungi*, attached to the tree roots, picks up this signal and sends it along to the neighbouring trees in which the fungi is also attached. This allows the trees to send out hormones, pheromones or any other defence to protect itself.

Families of fungi

There are over 99,000 species of fungi currently known and these can fall into one of four main categories:

Basidiomycota (Club Fungi) – mushrooms puff-balls, smuts, rusts, and toadstools

Ascomycota – yeast, ruffles, cup fungi and mildews.

Zygomycota – found on decaying food like cheese and bread.

Deuteromycota (imperfect fungi) – So called because they lack sexual reproduction. They reproduce with spores known as conidia which are asexual. This type of fungi cause disease in humans like ringworm and athlete’s foot – both of which are fungi.

Along with bacteria, fungi help digest decaying and dead matter which digest the organic matter externally before absorbing it into their mycelia. They can be a great source of food, as long as you know what you are doing. One of the best uses is in medicine like penicillin. Which is derived from the fungi Penicillium.

Up to 60% of fungi have fruiting bodies and use these fruiting bodies to reproduce by means of spores. An average head can produce an impressive 16 billion spores that are then carried on the wind.

The largest living organism on earth is thought to be a specific honey fungus that measures 2.4 miles (3.8 km) across and is located in the Blue Mountains of Oregon.

Here is a selection of 12 rare, not so rare, edible and deadly fungi.

1. Common earth ball – is very numerous during the summer and autumn months, in and around damp woodland in rich peaty soil or moss.

2. Puffball – Come in many varieties and get their name from the cloud of spores that are released. Unlike some other fungi the puffball produces its spores internally and releases them in a ‘puff’ when impacted like raindrops or an animal brushing past. While it is edible it can be confused with the younger versions of the Death cap and the Destroying angel, not something you would want to do.

3. Death Cap – The most deadly fungus known and is common in England. It is responsible for most fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide. Ingestion of just half a cap can lead to death.

4. Destroying angel – A pure white, deadly poisonous mushroom. One piece of this fungus is enough to kill a group of people. A particularly nasty fungi as once poisoned you start to feel better and then you die.

5. Amethyst Deceiver – A beautiful coloured mushroom, the amethyst deceiver likes to grow beneath beech and oak trees, turning brown with age.

6. Fly agaric – Probably the most iconic mushroom there is, made famous in fairytales and paintings, often associated with Alice in Wonderland when Alice was given a piece of Fly agaric to eat. That said it causes psychoactive and hallucinogenic episodes and should not be eaten. It can often be found under birch or spruce trees. It’s said that shamans used to collect fly agaric and give it to the younger members of the tribe who would have the hallucinogenic properties of the fly agaric, but also with the sickness that comes with it. The shamans would then drink the urine of the younger tribesmen after it had been filtered through the kidneys and liver giving them the high without the sickness.

7. Shaggy ink cap – AKA ‘lawyer’s wig’ gets its name from the inky like secretions that are produced when it spores. It will dissolve itself once it has spored or has been picked, usually within hours. It is edible when young, but because it dissolves it does not remain edible for long. it is also similar to the Magpie inkcap.

8. Lemon disco – This bright yellow fungus grows on dead hardwoods, that have lost their bark, including oak and appear ‘jelly like’. Usually seen in their hundreds, they grow in a small cup shape unlike its cousin the common jelly spot which is smaller and blob shaped.

9. Yellow brain – AKA ‘witches butter’ is so named for obvious reasons. An edible but flavourless fungi. It lives on dead wood and will shrivel and expand depending on how much rain there is.

10. Jelly ear – Fairly frequent in Britain and Ireland as well as in most countries of mainland Europe and parts of Asia and North America, the Jelly Ear fungus is seen mainly, but certainly not exclusively, on dead Elder wood in damp, shady locations.

11. Ox tongue – Also known as the ‘beefsteak’ mushroom due to its resemblance to raw meat. It likes living or dead oak and sweet chestnut and is fairly common. This mushroom is edible and the wood of infected trees develop brown rot which makes the wood richer, darker and of great interest to the furniture building trade.

12. Turkey tail – So called due to its resemblance to a turkey’s tail. Its latin name, Trametes versicolor, refers to it being many different colours. A good one to look out for on rotten tree stumps.

I hope you get a chance to see some of these amazing organisms and now know not all is what it seems within the damp world of fungi.

Please note: You need to be an expert to pick edible fungi this information is for education not consumption. Some can cure you and others can kill you and most look alike, assume all are deadly.

*Symbiotic fungi, meaning fungi that exchange this service for sugars or moisture from the roots of the tree.

Tag: fungus

Fire & bracket fungi