Welcome back to Mushroom Monday, your weekly look at some of PEI’s easy-to-identify fungi. Mushroom identification doesn’t get much easier than today’s example: Red-belted Polypore (Fomitopsis mounceae).
If you’ve been following this series, you’ll know that polypores are bracket or shelf fungi with pores (rather than gills, folds, or teeth) under their caps. Other examples featured so far include Artist’s Conk, Turkey Tail, Hen of the Woods, and Dryad’s Saddle; you can catch up on those in the Fungus Profiles section of this blog.
Red-belted Polypore is common, widespread, showy, and virtually unmistakeable when mature, leading to it being the most frequently reported fungus on the Island. It’s found tip to tip and can appear anywhere there are trees, from wilderness-like natural areas to urban parks and green spaces. It also plays an essential ecological role in breaking down wood and building up forest soil.
Two key components of wood are cellulose and lignin. Red-belted Polypore feeds on cellulose (a carbohydrate), leaving lignin behind. As the cellulose is consumed, the wood loses strength and eventually breaks into distinctive, cubical pieces. The left-over lignin gives the remaining wood a dark brown colour, and so Red-Belted Polypore is one of the brown rot fungi.
Eventually, brown-rotted wood falls to the forest floor and becomes the main ingredient in humus: the layer of organic material on top of soil. Next time you’re in the woods, grab a handful of humus, take a close look, and you’ll see bits of wood which are essentially just lignin. That lignin is resistant to further decay and will last for centuries. For this reason, brown-rot residue doesn’t play a major role in nutrient cycling but is important to soil’s structure and moisture-holding ability, as well as carbon storage.
Red-belted Polypore’s diet has one major limitation: there’s no nitrogen in cellulose. Wood itself is a very poor source of this essential element, so wood decay fungi are often adapted to consume nematodes as well as bacteria and other nitrogen rich(er) organisms. New research has shown that this isn’t one-way street, and nematodes also consume wood decay fungi. These microscopic interactions between fungi and animals are not yet well understood but have important implications for wood decay and thus carbon storage and release.
Red-belted Polypore has a long history of traditional use. Like many polypores, dried Red-belt is useful as a fire-starter and to keep coals alive when moving camp. It also has styptic properties, being able to stop wounds from bleeding. Until recently, our species was thought to be Fomitopsis pinicola, but recent research separated our North American species from this European one (with our species being named to recognize the late Canadian mycologist Irene Mounce). Little work has been done on the medicinal properties of our newly reclassified species, but F. pinicola has anti-bacterial, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and potentially anti-cancer uses.
Red-belted Polypore is perennial, adding a new layer at the leading edge each season. Older specimens are distinctive, but younger ones are sometimes mistaken for Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum). Reishi hasn’t been found this far north in Canada, but we do have the similar-looking Hemlock Varnish Shelf (Ganoderma tsugae). It can be differentiated from Red-Belt by its usually lacquered (shiny) appearance, the lack of black banding, and its preference for Hemlock trees (Red-belt is found on a variety of species).
If you haven’t seen this fungus before, I’ll bet you’ll now be noticing it in all sorts of areas across PEI untamed!
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