Anyone know where to find Chaga Tinda Fungus?

[Shark Tinderbox]

Do unto others including plants only what you would have done to yourself (chopped up and set on fire, eeek)

Seriously though, some of the Canadian suppliers may be pretty ethical as Canada takes the environment very seriously. You never know till you try so i wouldn't dismiss it completely without research.

LOL! We all got to eat, live and keep warm ... "It's like that, cos that's the way it is!" (Snap I think?)

Cheers

 

[Shark Tinderbox]

Chaga is as much symbiotic as it is parasitic. It forms a localised infection, and the skin helps prevent infection by more virulent fungi which spread throughout the tree.

Interesting, tell me more?

Cheers,

 

[Toddy]

Damp just means that it's feet aren't in water
Wet means that even in the middle of Winter if you cut a birch it'll pour out water.
Bit like the Inuit and a hundred words for snow, much of the UK has a hundred words for wet, damp, dreich weather

Chaga is like the thick bark on the birch, it's really rare in the UK.

The Canadian link that someone posted above has chaga for sale at $15 a pound, even with postage on it, it has to be easier than driving any distance to take native stuff. Now Canada does get long hard cold winters, year in year out and the chaga grows profusely in some areas there.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Hoodoo]

It's slow growing.
The chaga is actually the mycellium that eventually ends up feeding the bits that produce the spores when the tree is dead.

Mycelium is fungus tissue and both the conk and the fruiting body are made of mycelium.

Since the Chaga conk is the fruiting body of the fungus, or at least the trees response to the parasitical infection, when you see a conk on a tree it means that the tree is as good as dead, or it will be within a few years.

The conk is not a fruiting body. The fruiting body arises separately but likely connected to the conk by mycelium. I agree that once you see Chaga on a tree, it's as good as dead.

 

[Hoodoo]

Chaga is as much symbiotic as it is parasitic. It forms a localised infection, and the skin helps prevent infection by more virulent fungi which spread throughout the tree.

As far as I know, Chaga is a parasite. Do you have a reference for Chaga as a mutualist? I seriously doubt it prolongs the life of a tree as I have only found it on dead or dying trees and all the accounts I've read in the literature indicate it's a parasite, although I have not looked closely at that in a long while.

 

[Toddy]

Sorry Terry; I'm an archaeologist your Botany PhD+ beats me hands down when it comes to living stuff

I thought the chaga was the mycellium, the roots of the fungus so to speak, and it only erupted into spores when the inner bark of the tree died ?

I thought that taking the chaga meant the the fungus couldn't spore nearly so effectively even though it's not the fruiting body.

I only know of it from really cold places over here; is that just a result of manmade pressure from overcollecting in more populous areas though ?

cheers,
M

 

[Hoodoo]

Sorry Terry; I'm an archaeologist your Botany PhD+ beats me hands down when it comes to living stuff

I thought the chaga was the mycellium, the roots of the fungus so to speak, and it only erupted into spores when the inner bark of the tree died ?

I thought that taking the chaga meant the the fungus couldn't spore nearly so effectively even though it's not the fruiting body.

I only know of it from really cold places over here; is that just a result of manmade pressure from overcollecting in more populous areas though ?

cheers,
M

Um, biologist and zoologist, if you will.

All fungi are made of strands of cells called hyphae. The strands are woven together to form fungal tissue. Fungal tissue is called mycelium. Fruiting bodies are produced by a fungus to reproduce sexually. In the case of Chaga, I really don't know how much contribution the conk makes to the fruiting body in terms of delivering nutrients, but I'm sure the fruiting body itself also can absorb nutrients from the host.

 

[Toddy]

I did say PhD +

We know that if you take the chaga from the tree, the tree seems more open to fomes and piptoporus, and it doesn't regrow the chaga.

I think we need a mycologist to say whether the chaga can still create the fruiting bodies after the conk bit has been removed though I think it'd be greatly reduced since the conk/chaga is the fungus itself.

Like the bark the chaga seems to endure longer than the timber that has rotted away, and as tinderbox said, we do find some on the ground....usually mushy and insect devoured.

cheers,
M

 

[tinderbox]

As far as I know, Chaga is a parasite. Do you have a reference for Chaga as a mutualist? I seriously doubt it prolongs the life of a tree as I have only found it on dead or dying trees and all the accounts I've read in the literature indicate it's a parasite, although I have not looked closely at that in a long while.

It is a parasite, but it takes many years before it kills it's host, and it does seal the wound it infects. Most trees I've found it on appear healthy.

 

[cave_dweller]

I found chaga last weekend after seeing a picture of it over on BB - it was on an apparently healthy birch near a stream in South Wales, where it isn't particularly cold. It was small though, and I can't harvest any on account of the land being private (probably not worth bothering in this case anyway on account of its size). So my current options are go without, or buy some, it seems.

I was surprised how tough it was to be honest - the outer layer was pretty robust

 

[tinderbox]

I found chaga last weekend after seeing a picture of it over on BB - it was on an apparently healthy birch near a stream in South Wales, where it isn't particularly cold. It was small though, and I can't harvest any on account of the land being private (probably not worth bothering in this case anyway on account of its size). So my current options are go without, or buy some, it seems.

I was surprised how tough it was to be honest - the outer layer was pretty robust

PM me, I'll send you a small bit you can have a play with.

 

[cave_dweller]

Oh, forgot to say - there are some folk who claim that it does grow back (albeit slowly) after it's been harvested.

How about this for a sizeable lump... https://mycotopia.net/forums/wild-mushrooming-field-forest/53764-world-record-inonotus-obliquus.html

35 lbs! You could light some fires with that, methinks.

 

[Toddy]

Sorry, but that site just kills my computer, it's taking so long to load and throws up masses of warnings
Is that a British record or elsewhere ? I think that must have been a huge old tree, I don't think I've seen anything bigger than a rugby ball, and that didn't weigh a kilo.

What is 35lbs in new money ??? I know I'm ancient but I changed the way I think when we went metric, seemed to be much the more sensible option tbh. Somewhere about 15kgs ?

Tbh buying it from abroad like good quality thick birchbark, seems very reasonable.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Shark Tinderbox]

I found chaga last weekend after seeing a picture of it over on BB - it was on an apparently healthy birch near a stream in South Wales, where it isn't particularly cold. It was small though, and I can't harvest any on account of the land being private (probably not worth bothering in this case anyway on account of its size). So my current options are go without, or buy some, it seems.

I was surprised how tough it was to be honest - the outer layer was pretty robust

My point has been made ... here we have Cave-Dweller, a curious Bushcrafter who wants to play with some Chaga. How can he do so unless someone either gives it to him or he buys it from someone who cares more about the environment than about exploitative profit? This is why I sell the stuff, want to sell the stuff and therefore requested it from someone I can get to know and then trust.

Cheers,

 

[cave_dweller]

Sorry, but that site just kills my computer, it's taking so long to load and throws up masses of warnings

My apologies - I was using a Mac and didn't realise how huge that image was as it auto-scaled! 35lbs is just shy of 16kg, so it's a pretty huge lump. I don't know where it was found, but suspect North America. I can't post a scaled down image from here - will try later, as it's worth seeing!

 

[Retired Member southey]

Here you go,

 

[Husky]

I have a couple of chunks lying at home and have given twice as much, all from the same tree, away to a friend who is into natural medicine. It is not common but not very scarce either around my parts and seems to have "locations". I have spotted an area with several infected trees and my question is, how can it be sustainably harvested? If I take one for every two trees I find, will this be long term sustainable?

 

[Passer]

My point has been made ... here we have Cave-Dweller, a curious Bushcrafter who wants to play with some Chaga. How can he do so unless someone either gives it to him or he buys it from someone who cares more about the environment than about exploitative profit? This is why I sell the stuff, want to sell the stuff and therefore requested it from someone I can get to know and then trust.

Cheers,

I'm not sure that does prove your point.
Cave-Dweller, like many more would like to experiment with Chaga. However he declined taking the bracket he found, perhaps some ethical thinking there.
If Chaga from here was available on your site, would this not encourage people to buy, perhaps without knowing the conservation issue?
In your OP there was no mention of the source being sustainable, I assume this would be considered before a deal was done.
With the small amount available in Britain, would the more ethical position not be to buy from a sustainable source abroad (as already stated by other)?
That way our natural levels may not be depleted and your conservation ethos remains intact. A win, win situation.

 

[cave_dweller]

my question is, how can it be sustainably harvested? If I take one for every two trees I find, will this be long term sustainable?

It probably depends how many other people do the same as you are suggesting - the obvious problem being that you may not know! If the stuff is scarce, but hadly anybody touches it, then it's likely more sustainable than a large supply which is being harvested regularly by many people.

Sorry, that's not really an answer, but if it were me I'd keep an eye on the local population, and if nobody else is taking any, then it can probably be spared. On the other hand if you see signs of regular harvesting things might be different.

BTW - thanks Southey - I just finished resizing that image and uploading it, then saw you'd done my work for me!

 

[Retired Member southey]

HA! sorry dude,