As Giliell says, life out of death. Click for full size.
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
As Giliell says, life out of death. Click for full size.
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
It as if the fruit body was composed of multiple layers.
Do these things have a name in other languages? In Finnish it’s kääpä.
In the old days one kind of kääpä, taulakääpä (apparently tinder fungus in English), was collected, beaten, soaked in lye and dried for use in lighting fire with flint and steel.
I don’t know. These grow on live trees here, but I don’t know a name for them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomes_fomentarius
Someone once told me it was also used as a kind of punk stick.
It can be kept smoldering without flaming and be used to start a fire.
I’ve always meant to try it.
Fortunately, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Fungi put a stop to that…
─────────────────────────
Tinder fungus (which is very unlikely to be what is pictured) is also called Horse Hoof fungus, and indeed looks like a horse’s hoof. Fortunately, there is no horse attached.
Its use as tinder has apparently been known for a long time (from Ye Pfffft! of All Knowledge): “When found, the 5,000-year-old Ötzi the Iceman was carrying four pieces of F. fomentarius fruit body. Chemical tests led to the conclusion that he carried it for use as tinder.”
I think the ones that grow here are these, which are also used for tinder.
Phellinus igniarius! Sounds like a Harry Potter spell.
In German they’re called Tinder Sponge.
I’ll see how far it grows before we have to take that branch down. I’m all for letting the old trees stand and wither, but the possibility of one of them cracking the kids’ skulls is where I draw the line.
I’ve seen this fungus on some of our trees, and I thought Mu Err. Wood Ear fungus. When I went to China, one of the names for the town I worked in was Mu Err, Chinghai province.
In China it’s used as food, I’ve eaten it there, and in Chinese restaurants here in the Ustates. Chewy, with a mild flavor that is vaguely woody/mushroomy. Usually sliced thin, and soaked or pickled, before being cooked. I know there are real chinese cooks and clientele about when I find it in a restaurant.