Fomes ??

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loz.

Settler
Sep 12, 2006
646
3
52
Dublin,Ireland
www.craobhcuigdeag.org
Not very hooflike - so is it fomes ?

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Ranger Bob

Nomad
Aug 21, 2004
286
0
40
Suffolk
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.
 

WhichDoctor

Nomad
Aug 12, 2006
384
1
Shropshire
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.





 

loz.

Settler
Sep 12, 2006
646
3
52
Dublin,Ireland
www.craobhcuigdeag.org
New one on me - but the description seems to match !

anoderma applanatum (Pers. ex Wallr.) Pat. Flacher Lackporling Ganoderme aplani, Artist’s Bracket. Bracket 10–90cm across, 5–60cm wide, 2–10cm 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 7–25mm long in each annual layer, brown. Pores 4–5 per mm, circular, white, bruising brown. Spores brown ornamented, ovoid-ellipsoid, truncate at one end, 6.5–8.5 x 4.5–6um, 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 ?
 

Goose

Need to contact Admin...
Aug 5, 2004
1,797
21
56
Widnes
www.mpowerservices.co.uk
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

Nomad
Aug 21, 2004
286
0
40
Suffolk
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:
 

loz.

Settler
Sep 12, 2006
646
3
52
Dublin,Ireland
www.craobhcuigdeag.org
dommyracer said:
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 !
 

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