Mt. Pisgah Woods in Berlin
10/21/08
This growth on a Black Birch looked like a Chaga but at closer
inspection turned out to be something else.
Guillaume Ayotte Cote says that is most likely Inonotus glomeratus
Bill Neill was not familiar with this conch but pointed to the true
fruiting body of Inonotus glomeratus which he is familiar with.
http://mykoweb.prf.jcu.cz/polypores/list_iton.html
So it appears that Inonotus glomeratus has this additional
similarity to Inonotus obliquus
Bill Neill also sent this link
http://maple.dnr.cornell.edu/insects-disease/InonotusGlomeratus.html
The thing is this one is growing on a birch rather than a maple, but mushrooms
tend to choose different hosts in different parts of the world.
Side view.
Here is the information on the above link:
Formerly Polyporus glomeratus,
this fungus causes a relatively common canker rot on sugar maple. It
reportedly is the most important decay fungus of sugar maple in Ontario,
accounting for up to 40 percent of volume losses. It also is found on red maple
and beech. Branch stubs and wounds are the primary entry points for
infection. Once the decay is advanced in the stem, the fungus produces a
sterile, thick mass of tissue that spreads over the wound area or around the
branch stub. This soon turns black, crusty, and cracked. The canker is
irregularly shaped and generally becomes elongate with raised margins. Canker
rots produce fertile fruiting bodies or conks only after the tree dies. Canker
rots cannot be eliminated from the forest, but maintaining healthy and
wound-free trees and removing infected ones should reduce the incidence of these
diseases.
Here is damage, on a Black Birch, by Nectria galligena
with no Chaga present.
Here is a Nectria galligena
lesion on a Black Birch with Chaga growing
inside. This Black Birch snag was about 14" in diameter and stood about
10' high. This is an example of a dead Chaga.