Content
All tinder fungi are parasites that live on trees. Scientists know more than one and a half thousand of their species. Some of them prefer the trunks of living trees, some fruiting bodies - decaying stumps, dead wood. The bristle-haired polypore (bristle-haired) of the family Hymenochaetae parasitizes deciduous tree species, such as ash trees.
Description of the bristle-haired tinder fungus
This saprophyte does not have a stalk. The cap makes up the entire fruiting body, which is a crescent with dimensions of 10x16x8 cm. Sometimes larger species are found - up to 35 cm in diameter. The red-orange cap darkens over time and turns brown. The surface is velvety, homogeneous, with small hairs, and has a dense structure. The flesh of the parasite is brown, slightly lighter at the surface.In wet weather it becomes like a sponge, in dry weather it turns into a fragile mass. Large spores are located over the entire surface of the cap, turning dark brown or black.
The bristle-haired tinder fungus parasitizes the body of a living tree
Where and how does it grow
This fungus parasitizes the trunk of deciduous trees growing in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere. It is found on ash, oak, alder, apple, and plum trees. Growing firmly to the bark, the mushroom sucks out all the juices from it. This inonotus is an annual fruiting body that appears at the end of May and is actively formed from June to September. Most often it grows alone. It is rare to see several of these saprophytes growing together and resembling shingles.
Is the mushroom edible or not?
Mycologists consider the bristle-haired tinder fungus not only inedible, but also a toxic mushroom. It is not used in medicine like some medicinal species of this family: birch, sulfur-yellow, reisha, larch.
Doubles and their differences
The bristle-haired polypore can be confused with several species:
- Oak polypore similar to bristly inonotus in shape and size. But it has a tubular layer of brown, rusty color. The structure of the fruiting body is dense, and by the end of summer it becomes hard, almost wooden. This parasite prefers to live on oak trees. The hard pulp makes it inedible, but in folk medicine its healing properties are used to treat cancer and heart diseases.
The oak polypore forms hard claws on the body of the tree
- Fox tinder differs in smaller dimensions: cap diameter - 10 cm, thickness - 8 cm. At the base of the fruiting body there is a clearly visible sandy core with a granular structure. This inedible saprophyte prefers to live on aspens.
The fox tinder forms a sand-colored granular core at the base
How does the bristle-haired polypore affect trees?
This species is a parasite that infects the trunk with white rot. The bark in affected areas becomes yellow. The diseased area can be seen by a yellow-brown stripe separating it from healthy areas of the trunk or branches.
Measures to combat the bristle-haired tinder fungus
The bristle-haired species sometimes settles on apple or pear trees. In this case, it must be cut off so that the spores do not spread throughout the area of the tree: they ripen by the end of June. If this has already happened, then the tree is not simply cut down, but uprooted and then burned so that no parasite spores remain on the site.
Conclusion
The bristle-haired tinder fungus can be called a forest orderly, despite its parasitic lifestyle. It settles on wind-broken, dried trees and accelerates the process of their decomposition.
