Red-belted polypore / Spring / Summer / Autumn / Winter / Inedible

By This image was created by user Jason Hollinger CC BY-SA 3.0,

The Red Belted Polypore (Fomitopsis pinicola) is a bold and beautiful bracket fungus found growing on dead or dying coniferous trees, occasionally hardwoods, throughout the UK and across the Northern Hemisphere. This distinctive polypore gets its name from the reddish, rust-coloured band that often appears along the edge of its otherwise brown, white, and amber-toned cap. With its hard, woody texture and multi-coloured, varnished appearance, it’s one of the easiest shelf fungi to spot in the wild.

While not edible due to its tough, inedible flesh, the Red-Belted Polypore is of great interest to naturalists and herbalists. It plays an essential role in forest ecosystems by breaking down wood and returning nutrients to the soil. In this post, we’ll help you identify Fomitopsis pinicola, understand its ecological role, and explore how it’s been used in traditional medicine and mushroom dyeing.

Scientific Name

Fomitopsis pinicola

Common Name

Red-belted polypore, red belted conk

Family

Fomitopsidaceae

Habitat and season

Can be seen in all seasons as it is a perennial polypore growing for many years from the same spot. Can be found on old conifers also Beech and Birch trees

Saprophytic also occasionally parasitic.

Very rare in Britain but common in Scandinavia and Slovenia.

Identifying Features of the Red belted polypore

There is a characteristic orange/ red band between the new growth and previous years growth which is easily recognisable and a key feature.

Hoof shaped bracket fungus that grows directly off wood, no distinguishable stem, broadly attached to the host tree.

Upperside

Hoof or shelf shaped, varies in colour and ratios of colour but will be darker coloured on the older portion where it attaches to the tree in either dark grey, slate or even purple tones and then an orange/ red band on the rim is most often seen but is not always present, then followed by a white band where the upper surface meets underside. Younger specimens can display more orange. The surface has radial band like ridges (zonate) which have accumulated with subsequent years growth. It has a firm woody texture, smooth and shiny with a layer of resin that melts if a flame is put to it.They can reach 30 cm across.

Underside

Polypore- lots of tiny holes like sponge which are at the end of tubes this is the structure that releases the spores. White in colour which hardly bruises, ageing a yellow brown.

Smell:

Can vary from unpleasant and sour to water melon rind.

Spores

Light lemon yellow, released in late summer autumn.

Uses/ edibility

Inedible as its very hard and bitter so not a culinary mushroom, but it has a have a huge array of medicinal properties it has been attributed to which generally are obtained from making an extraction or drying and powdering the conk.

Immune modulating from the polysaccaride content, broadly anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties have been used by our ancestors from many regions of the world.

A study on mice in 2020 showed it has anti-diabetic potential and research is continuing.

Was dried powdered and put on wounds as it would help stop bleeding, reduce chance of infection and aid healing

Has been used historically as a tinder to help carry an ember to the next settlement.

Conservation Considerations

If found best left as it is very rare.

Red belted polypore Could Be Confused With…

Hoof fungus- (Fomes fomentarius) The red/orange belt is not always visible making it easier to mistake for the hoof fungus which is the same hoof shape but lacking the coloured band.

Ganoderma’s . This is a genus or several resinous bracket fungi that can also look very similar, you can tell them apart as Ganoderma’s have a heavy rust brown spore deposit which is usually visible on and around the fungi. Many Ganoderma’s underside also bruises a light brown.