Medicinal Monday - Tinder Fungus

This tough perennial mushroom in the polypore family has an interesting hoof shape. Native Americans found many interesting uses for this mushroom that is one of two that Tyrolean Icemen were carrying around 5,000 years ago.

About Fomes fomentarius

This hoof-shaped mushroom, sometimes called tinder fungus is usually found on standing and fallen hardwood trees. It is a parasite meaning that it attacks live wood and is also saprobic meaning that it survives on dead or decaying organic matter like wood using it as food. It is especially destructive to birch and beech trees causing white rot. Its upper woody surface cap has many layers and ranges from a grayish color to black. The relatively flat underside has a brown porous surface that is made up of tiny round pores. The lower layer of the fungus is the youngest. A large number of spores are produced in the spring and a smaller number are released in the fall. 

 When sliced open, which is not easy to do because of its toughness its flesh is composed of tube layers that form long parallel lines that point straight down. The color is typically lighter at lower altitudes. They live on trees long after they have died changing from a parasite to a decomposer. They can be found in northern and southern Africa, throughout Asia and Europe, and in eastern North America where they are most commonly found on birch trees.

Medicinal and Other Uses

This mushroom is very good at catching sparks that smolder at a high temperature for a long time, large pieces can smolder for hours making them perfect for starting fires. The Ojibway found several interesting medicinal uses for this mushroom. They dried pieces of this mushroom then pounded it into a fine powder and mixed it with a small amount of gun powder. This mixture was applied to infected wounds and ignited to draw the puss out. This mixture was also used to treat blood poisoning. Immature mushrooms were used as styptics and coagulants because of their absorptive properties.

Did You Know

The 5,000-year-old Otzo the Iceman carried four pieces of F. fomentarius that scientists believe he used for tinder.

This species is known as tinder fungus, hoof fungus, ice man fungus, or false tinder fungus.

The fruit bodies of these mushrooms can survive for up to thirty years.

Fly fisherman process this mushroom to make dry flies that float on top of the water.