View Full Version : Fomes ??
Not very hooflike - so is it fomes ?
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p202/lozjm/Fungi/S7000153.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p202/lozjm/Fungi/S7000154.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p202/lozjm/Fungi/S7000155.jpg
Ranger Bob
05-01-2007, 10:37
Yes. The white underside should turn a kind of purple colour when touched.
What tree did you find it on?
It was on the inside !!- in the rotten trunk of a Fallen Beech.
Wonder if this is why it does't have the characteristic hoof shape
Ranger Bob
05-01-2007, 11:04
Interesting...The first one I found about a decade ago was on the inside of beech that had rotted away. I mostly find them on birch with a few on beech.
Don't know about the shape......I find alot with much flatter shapes in various positions, mostly on the north side of the tree which are growing in a very sandy acidic soil (Mostly Birches). While the ones I find on beech display the hoof shape.I've only ever found them on beech which are growing on a alkaline heavy clay soil. Fenlander once showed me a perfect example found on a birch in the fens.
I don't know if soil type or facing direction have any effect on the growth of the fungus, but these are just some obsrvations I have made made.
Being the shape it is - i'm wondering if the effort to extract the useful layer would be worth it ? - It's a very thin layer.
WhichDoctor
05-01-2007, 11:48
Interesting, is this fomes as well? I've been wondering about this for ages, I thought it mite be fomes at first but then thought it was to flat. It's not very big I'm afraid and its been sitting on my bedside-table for months. I found it along with some other much bigger, but equally flat, ones on a large Beech.
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/4450/p1010178ln3.th.jpg (http://img401.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010178ln3.jpg)
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/999/p1010179bg5.th.jpg (http://img139.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010179bg5.jpg)
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/2664/p1010183hm9.th.jpg (http://img301.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010183hm9.jpg)
Well that looks more Hoof like than mine !
dommyracer
05-01-2007, 11:59
Loz, that one in the pics you posted looks more like Artists Conk - Ganoderma Applanatum
http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~5941.asp
So called because the white underside, when scratched, turns a deep purple / brown colour - this has been used to draw and create art on:-
http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/images/ganodart.jpg
New one on me - but the description seems to match !
anoderma applanatum (Pers. ex Wallr.) Pat. Flacher Lackporling Ganoderme aplani, Artists Bracket. Bracket 1090cm across, 560cm wide, 210cm thick, more or less flat, semicircular, hard, corky and glabrous, margin acute; upper surface knobbly and concentrically grooved, covered with a hard wrinkled crust, often pallid, grey-brown, umber or cocoa-coloured. Flesh cinnamon brown, thinner than the tube layer. Taste bitter, smell mushroomy. Tubes 725mm long in each annual layer, brown. Pores 45 per mm, circular, white, bruising brown. Spores brown ornamented, ovoid-ellipsoid, truncate at one end, 6.58.5 x 4.56um, mostly 8 x 5.5um. Hyphal structure trimitic; generative hyphae with clamp-connections but these may be very difficult to demonstrate. Habitat on the trunks of deciduous trees, especially beech, where it causes an intensive white rot. Season all year, perennial. Uncommon but until recently much confused with G. adspersum. Not edible. Distribution, America and Europe.
I'll have to do the bruise test when i get home ! - But Doe's the underside of Fomes also bruise purple ?
It looks like artist conk to me too, it will take an ember when dry. There is one tree near me that is full of it, it starts to look a little manky after a while and there are lots of variation in shape and look as it grows. The young bits before the bottom opens out looked to me like king alfred cakes, but it develops into what you have.
Ranger Bob
05-01-2007, 15:36
Doh! Teaches me for just glancing at the photos, if it were fomes the flesh would be much thicker! :banghead: Apologies Loz! I'll get me coat. :buttkick:
dommyracer
05-01-2007, 15:38
Artists conk is a goodun, like goose said it will take a good ember when dry and gets very hot.
If you drop one in the middle of large one it will spread and burn very hot, so much so that it can be used as a stove.
In fact its featured in this BCUK article
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/content/articles.php?action=show&showarticle=77
Doh! Teaches me for just glancing at the photos, if it were fomes the flesh would be much thicker! :banghead: Apologies Loz! I'll get me coat. :buttkick:
Dont dare appologise !
Artists conk is a goodun, like goose said it will take a good ember when dry and gets very hot.
If you drop one in the middle of large one it will spread and burn very hot, so much so that it can be used as a stove.
In fact its featured in this BCUK article
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/content/articles.php?action=show&showarticle=77
Wow - I thought you were joking re the stove - but to use the fungi itself as the hearthboard of a bowdrill created fire ! and just drop your pot right on top !
Im amazed and cannot wait to get home and try !