I’m a happy polypore. What are you?
Raindrops keep falling off my lips and that makes me smile because I get live in the forests of Mount Elphinstone.
About Fomitopsis pinicola
Fomitopsis pinicola, is a stem decay fungus. Its conk (fruiting body), known as the Red-Belt Conk, is a polypore mushroom of the genus Fomitopsis. The species is common throughout the temperate Northern hemisphere. It is a decay fungus that serves as a small-scale disturbance agent in coastal rainforest ecosystems. It influences stand structure and succession in temperate rainforests. It performs essential nutrient cycling functions in forests.
Cap is hoof-shaped or triangular with a hard and tough texture. Its surface is more or less smooth, at first orange-yellow with a white margin, later dark reddish to brown and then frequently with orange margin. It grows as thick shelves on live and dead coniferous or (less common) deciduous trees.
The fruiting body of Fomitopsis pinicola is called the conk. It is a woody, pileate fruiting body with pores lined with basidia on its underside. As in other polypores, the fruiting body is perennial with a new layer of pores produced each year on the bottom of the old pores. The pores are whitish when young and become somewhat brownish in age. This mushroom is inedible due to its woody texture, but it is useful as tinder.
More information: Fomitopsis pinicola : wikipedia