Birkenporling

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birkenporling
A birch pore on the trunk of a birch

A birch pore on the trunk of a birch

Systematics
Class : Agaricomycetes
Subclass : insecure position (incertae sedis)
Order : Stalk porlings (Polyporales)
Family : Tree spongy relatives (Fomitopsidaceae)
Genre : Tree sponges ( Fomitopsis )
Type : Birkenporling
Scientific name
Fomitopsis betulina
( Bull. ) B. K. Cui, M. L. Han & Y. C. Dai, (2016)

The Birkenporling ( Fomitopsis betulina , until 2015 Piptoporus betulinus ) is a fungus from the tree sponge relatives . It attacks birch trees and lives parasitically in them .

features

Fruiting bodies

The Birkenporling forms annual fruiting bodies that develop from July to November. Most of the time the fruiting bodies appear individually on trunk parts, more rarely also like roof tiles or at intervals to many on top of each other. The affected areas usually show no further external damage.

The hat of the Birkenporlings is initially shaped like a bulb and over time grows into a shape that is flat on the underside and pillow -shaped or kidney-shaped on top . It reaches a width of up to 30 cm and protrudes about 5–20 cm from the bark . The thickness of the hat is about 2–7 cm. The point of attachment on the trunk is narrowed like a stem and often has an upward hump. While the hat skin is initially smooth and whitish-cream-colored, its color changes to ocher-brown with advancing age; Sometimes it takes on a greenish color from the growth of algae . It can be peeled off and over time it becomes cracked. The brim of the hat is usually regularly curved downwards, in some cases also wavy. The pores on the underside of the hat are white when young, and take on a grayish hue with age. There are around two to four pores per millimeter. The tubes of the Birkenporlings have a length of 1–8 mm.
The mushroom flesh is initially white, juicy and soft, later it becomes firmer and drier, with a consistency reminiscent of cork . The smell is insignificant. However, birch pomegranates have an increasingly bitter taste as they age. The fungal spores form a white powder.

It is only possible to confuse young mushrooms with the tinder fungus . The latter, however, has a light brown mushroom flesh and causes white rot (see section damage ).

  • A young fruiting body with a characteristic tuberous shape and white, smooth cap skin

  • Birkenporling on a fallen birch, the hump at the base of the hat is clearly visible

  • Pore ​​surface of an old fruiting body

  • Birkenporling with a wavy edge

  • Three Birkenporlinge on a birch trunk.

Microscopic properties

The spores of the Birkenporlings show their sausage-like shape under the microscope. They have a size of 5–7 × 1.5–2  µm , have a smooth surface and are translucent. They are not amyloid , but are allantoid (sausage-shaped); there are two or four of them sitting on the basidia . The trama is dimitic , that is, it consists of skeletal and generative hyphae . The birch pore has no cystidia .

Damage

The Birkenporling causes severe brown rot in the birch . The wood of the infected tree becomes brittle and discolored dark brown ( broken cube ). The mycelium of the fungus is found between the break lines of the wood . The result is usually a wind break at the level of the infestation.

Ecology and diffusion

The Birkenporling only attacks birch trees. The fungus usually invades old, dying trees through broken branches where the xylem has been exposed. In doing so, it breaks down the cellulose of the tree, which leads to massive losses of the wood substance. Within three months, the tree can lose 50–70% of its mass in the infected areas. This is serious because birch trees contain only about 20% lignin by mass. However, since these numbers are laboratory measurements, it is not easy to infer the great outdoors. For example, specimens were found in birch forests that still attacked the wood of fallen trees after five years; the decomposition of the wood was correspondingly much slower.

Birch porlings are mesophilic , i. h., they prefer a temperature of 25  ° C . From a temperature of 30 ° C their growth stalls, the temperature minimum for growth is around 7–9 ° C. This corresponds to the distribution of the fungus: it is found everywhere in North America and Eurasia , where these temperatures prevail during the development of its fruiting body and where there is a population of birch trees.
At the same time, the Birkenporling is also dependent on the bark remaining on the wood, as it keeps the moisture content of the wood stable over the long term, with the fungus requiring between 35 and 100% moisture content. It also contains ingredients such as tannins that are necessary for the mushroom .

The birch pore is often attacked by mycetophagous pests , which are usually insects and mites . In the first six months the fruiting body is particularly attacked by Tetratoma fungorum , dead fungi are mainly decomposed by Cis bilamellatus ; both species are beetles that feed primarily on mushrooms . While the latter spends its entire life cycle in the fruiting body, T. fungorum pupates in rotten wood or in the nearby soil before the adults attack the fungus.

Old fruiting bodies are often colonized by the birch pollen mushroom .

Systematics

No subspecies or varieties are recognized for the Birkenporling.

meaning

The Birkenporling is edible when young, but inedible due to its bitterness.

In tree care , the birch sprout is an indicator of the loss of health in a tree. As it significantly reduces the break resistance, infested trees usually have to be felled.

In earlier times the mushroom was primarily important as a medicine. The fruit body, cut into thin strips, was used as a bandage for wound healing , partly because of its anti-inflammatory ingredients. In Scandinavia, its pulp was used as a sheath for knives to protect them from rust .

The "man in the ice", commonly known as Ötzi , an approximately 5300 year old glacier mummy from the late Neolithic (Neolithic) or the Copper Age (Chalcolithic), which was found at the 3208  m high Tisenjoch in the Ötztal Alps above the Niederjochferner , led two Birkenporlinge with them. While it was initially suspected that the mushrooms might have contained hallucinogens , this soon turned out to be false, as did their use as tinder . The man probably carried the mushrooms with him because of their antibiotic effects.

In recent times, the birch pork has been gaining interest again, as studies have confirmed the high antioxidant effect (hence the earlier use as a knife sheath) as well as antibacterial and antiviral effects (especially in flu strains). Anti-tumor properties have also been identified and are currently being investigated further.

References

literature

  • Harry J. Hudson: Fungal Biology . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1992, ISBN 0-521-42773-8 , p. 100.
  • William C. Roody : Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington KY 2003, ISBN 0-8131-9039-8 , p. 381.
  • Antje Wohlers, Thomas Kowol, Dirk Dujesiefken: Fungi in tree control. Recognize important species on street and park trees. Thalacker Medien, Braunschweig 2001, ISBN 3-87815-167-5 , pp. 14-15.

Web links

Commons : Birkenporling  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Birkenporling  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fomitopsis betulina www.mycobank.org, accessed July 20, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b c d Antje Wohlers, Thomas Kowol, Dirk Dujesiefken: Fungi in tree control. Recognize important species on street and park trees. Thalacker Medien, Braunschweig 2001. ISBN 3-87815-167-5 , pp. 14-15
  3. ↑ Michael Kuo: Piptoporus betulinus www.mushroomexpert.com, January 2004. Retrieved October 4, 2009.
  4. ^ A b c William C. Roody: Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians University Press of Kentucky, 2003. ISBN 0813190398 , p. 381
  5. ↑ Donald M. Huffmann : Mushrooms and other fungi of the midcontinental United States. University of Iowa Press, 2008. ISBN 1587296276 , p. 207
  6. ^ Michael Jordan : The encyclopedia of fungi of Britain and Europe. frances lincoln ltd, 2004. ISBN 0711223793 , p. 93.
  7. ^ Ian M. Smith: European handbook of plant diseases. Wiley-Blackwell, 1988. ISBN 0632012226 , p. 520.
  8. ^ A b Harry J. Hudson: Fungal Biology CUP Archive, 1992. ISBN 0521427738 , p. 100.
  9. ↑ Quentin Wheeler, Meredith Blackwell: Fungus-insect relationships: perspectives in ecology and evolution Columbia University Press, 1984. ISBN 0231056958 , p. 147
  10. ↑ Erich Kreissl: On the occurrence of Tetratoma fungorum FABR. in Styria and Austria (Hex., Coleoptera, Serropalpidae) (PDF; 485 kB) In: Mitt. Abt. Zool. Landesmus. Joanneum . Issue 40, pp. 67-70.
  11. ↑ Svengunnar Ryman & Ingmar Holmåsen: Mushrooms. Bernhard Thalacker Verlag, Braunschweig 1992. ISBN 3-8781-5043-1 , p. 665.
  12. ↑ Index Fungorum.Retrieved October 4, 2009.
  13. ↑ Olaf Schmidt: Wood and tree fungi: biology, damage, protection, and use Springer, 2006. ISBN 3540321381 , p. 199.
  14. ↑ Konrad Spindler: The man in the ice. The Neolithic glacier mummy from Hauslabjoch in the Ötztal Alps . in: Nürnberger Blätter zur Archeologie . Nuremberg 9.1992 / 93, pp. 27-38. ISSN  0938-9539
  15. ^ Brenda Fowler: Iceman: uncovering the life and times of a prehistoric man found in an alpine glacier University of Chicago Press, 2001. ISBN 0226258238 , p. 116.
  16. ↑ Małgorzata Pleszczyńska, Adrian Wiater, Marek Siwulski, Marta K. Lemieszek, Justyna Kunaszewska: Cultivation and utility of Piptoporus betulinus fruiting bodies as a source of anticancer agents . In: World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology . tape 32 , no. 9 , July 27, 2016, ISSN  1573-0972 , p. 151 , doi : 10.1007 / s11274-016-2114-4 , PMID 27465851 , PMC 4963449 (free full text).