Photo by kaboompics.com from Pexels
There are four species of birch trees native to where I live in Massachusetts: Betula alleghaniensis, Betula lenta, Betula nigra, and Betula papyrifera. This winter (my first winter in Massachusetts), I went searching for birch trees. I wasn’t interested in the live trees that shed their leaves and remain dormant until spring. Instead, I went looking for the birch trees that looked like their crowns had been snapped off with the top-most pieces of trunk and branches found lying on the nearby ground. Dead, standing trees that are a host of life for birds, insects, small mammals, and fungus.
It is these dead or dying birches that host Fomitopsis betulina, the birch polypore. This species of bracket fungus is known for its medicinal benefits. Adam Haritan of Learn Your Land refers to them as looking like pancakes, and I love that analogy, mostly because I love pancakes. Starting in the summer, the brown discs begin to emerge from the birch trunk and grow to anywhere from one to 12 inches wide.
Early in the winter, I found a grove of Betula papyrifera while on a walk by a nearby pond. The small trees hosted appropriately small fungi. After watching online videos, reading articles, and studying identification guides, I was thrilled to have found them. I began exploring more of the woods in the area and even without expertise I began to see patterns and consistency. If the birch tree had its top lopped, it was likely that a birch polypore had formed on the trunk.
I collected a few of these mushrooms to make a medicinal tea (again, after doing lots of research). The aroma of the simmering pot smelled of those warm autumn days when the sun bakes freshly fallen leaves. The resources said that the tea would taste bitter (and wow was it!), but with a spoonful of honey the tea was palatable. I drank a cup of tea ever few days through the early winter to help boost my immunity. The big effect that I felt after drinking a cup of tea was that I was discernibly happier.
Come February, the birch polypore begins to show signs of decomposition as it is at the end of its annual growth cycle. The mycologist saying is “just as you don’t eat rotten meat, you don’t use rotten fungi,” so rather than collecting birch polypore for tea, my new game was to simply practice spotting the birch polypore while walking or driving. It was amazing how once my eyes became trained for what to look for they started popping out at me. Places I’d driven by a dozen times in a week suddenly had birch trees and those birch trees had fungi. Driving down the highway, the sighting of birch polypore became as exciting as spotting a red-tailed hawk.
It is now summer and there are a whole host of edible mushrooms to discover. I’m particularly interested in finding Laetiporus sulphureus, chicken of the woods. I’m following the same process that I used to get to know the birch polypore. I’ve watched videos, read articles, attended mycologist-led classes, and read multiple identification books. I am confident that my eyes will train to spotting the clusters of yellow/orange fans on oak stumps. Whether or not I find some, one, or no chicken of the woods this season, I’ll still have spent more time exploring the outdoors, and any time spent outside is time well-spent.