Chaga (Clinker Polypore)

Inonotus obliquus

On living birches, rarely on other deciduous trees, at damaged spots. Spring, summer, autumn, winter.

Growths 10-30 cm across and larger, irregularly cracked, fissured outgrowths, brown, bluish-black in colour. This sterile, spore-less form of Inonotus obliquus is the only one usually seen in our forests – growths on birches. The fruiting bodies are under the tree bark, invisible. Annual, widely spreading, soft and leathery when young, later fibrous, dried, hard and brittle, consisting almost entirely of tubes. Tubes single-layered, oblique, 3-5 mm long, whitish when young, tobacco-coloured when old. Pores angular. In Lithuania only a few sites are known. Characteristic features: the fruiting bodies are usually seen only after the birch has fallen. Grows in forests, bogs and parks. Has medicinal properties.