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Tinder (Polyporus) – a genus of annual and perennial basidiomycetes, differing in their morphological structure. Polypores live in close symbiosis with trees, parasitizing them or forming mycorrhiza with them. The tuberous tinder fungus (Daedaleopsis confragosa) is a polyposis fungus that lives on tree trunks and feeds on wood. It digests lingin, a tough component of plant cell walls, and forms the so-called white rot.
The fungus is tuberous, light brown in color, radial stripes, warts and a white border along the edge are visible on its surface.
Description of the tuberous tinder fungus
Tuberous tinder fungus is a 1-2-3-year-old mushroom. Fruiting bodies are sessile, widely adherent, semicircular, slightly convex, prostrate. Their sizes range from 3-20 cm in length, 4-10 cm in width, 0,5-5 cm in thickness. Fruiting bodies are formed by many thin hyphae threads intertwined with each other. The surface of the tinder fungus is naked, dry, covered with small furrowed wrinkles that form concentric color zones. Various shades of gray, brown, yellow-brown, reddish-brown alternate with each other.
Fruiting body in gray-cream tones
The edges of the cap are thin, bordered in white or gray. Reddish-brown warts may appear on the surface, most often they are grouped in the middle. Sometimes there are tinder fungi covered with short villi. The fungus has no stem, the cap grows directly from the tree trunk. The hymenophore is tubular, initially white, gradually becoming beige and aging to grey. The pores are elongated-elongated, depending on age, they can be:
- round;
- form a pattern resembling a maze;
- stretch out so much that they look like gills.
A pale coating forms on the surface of the pores of young mushrooms, pink-brown “bruises” appear when pressed.
Hymenophore of Dedaleopsis rough
Spores are white, cylindrical or ellipsoidal. The fabric of daedalea tuberculate (trama) is cork, it can be whitish, pinkish, brownish. It does not have a characteristic smell, the taste is bitter.
Where and how to grow
The tinder fungus is found in temperate latitudes: in Great Britain, Ireland, North America, in most of continental Europe, in China, Japan, Iran, and India. He settles on deciduous trees, prefers willow, birch, dogwood. Less common on oaks, elms and very rarely on conifers. Rough daedaleopsis grows singly, in groups or in tiers. Most often it can be found in forests with abundant dead wood – on old stumps, dry and decaying trees.
The tinder fungus lives on old, dying wood
Is the mushroom edible or not?
The tuberous tinder fungus is an inedible mushroom: the structure and taste of the pulp do not allow it to be eaten. At the same time, daedaleopsis tuberosa has useful properties that determine its use in medicine:
- antimicrobial;
- antioxidant;
- fungicidal;
- anti-cancer.
An aqueous infusion of tinder fungus is taken to lower blood pressure.
Twins and their differences
There are several varieties of tinder fungus, similar to daedaleopsis tuberosa. All of them are inedible due to the hard consistency of trama and the bitter taste of the pulp, but are used in pharmacology.
Daedaleopsis tricolor (Daedaleopsis tricolor)
An annual mushroom with sessile, semi-prostrate fruiting bodies, different from Daedaleopsis tuberosa:
- smaller radius (up to 10 cm) and thickness (up to 3 mm);
- the ability to grow not only singly and in tiers, but also to gather in rosettes;
- lamellar hymenophore, turning brown from touch;
- a great contrast of radial stripes, painted in rich red-brown tones.
The surface of the cap of daedaleopsis tricolor is the same wrinkled, zonal-colored, with a light rim around the edge.
Daedaleopsis northern (Daedaleopsiss eptentrionas)
Small, with a radius of up to 7 cm, fruiting bodies are painted in soft yellowish-brown and brown colors. They differ from daedaleopsis rough by the following features:
- tubercles and radial stripes on the cap are smaller;
- at the base of the cap there is a small tubercle;
- the hymenophore is tubular at first, but quickly becomes lamellar.
The fungus is found in mountain and northern taiga forests, prefers to grow on birches.
Lenzites birch (Lenzites betulina)
Annual fruiting bodies of Lenzites birch are sessile, prostrate. They have a furrowed-zonal surface of white, grayish, cream colors, darkening with time. They differ from daedaleopsis tuberosa:
- felt, bristly-hairy surface;
- the structure of the hymenophore, consisting of radially diverging large plates;
- fruiting bodies often grow together at the edges, form rosettes;
- the hat is often covered with a green bloom.
This is one of the most common types of polyposis fungi in Our Country.
Stekcherinum Murashkinsky (Steccherinum murashkinskyi)
Fruit bodies sessile or pedunculated, flexible, semicircular, 5-7 cm wide. The surface of the cap is uneven, bumpy, zonal, covered with hard hairs, and closer to the base – nodules. The color of the fungus is whitish at first, later darkens to light brown, and may be reddish-brown near the edge. It differs from the tuberous tinder fungus:
- spiny hymenophore of pinkish or red-brown color;
- cork-leathery structure and anise aroma of trama;
- in very thin caps, the edge becomes gelatinous, gelatinous.
In Our Country, the fungus grows in the Central strip, the south of Siberia and the Urals, in the Far East.
It belongs to the genus Phellinus. It grows on trees of the Rosaceae family – cherry, plum, cherry plum, sweet cherry, apricot.
False plum fungus
Conclusion
The tuberous tinder fungus is a saprotroph that feeds on organic compounds formed as a result of the decomposition of wood. It rarely parasitizes healthy plants, preferring diseased and oppressed ones. Daedalea tuberculate destroys old, diseased, rotting wood, participates in the process of its decomposition and transformation into soil. Rough daedaleopsis, like many tinder fungi, is an important link in the circulation of matter and energy in nature.
