How to make amadou material - Part 2: Hunting down the fungus

The first, and one of the most important steps, is collecting the fomes, or amadou mushroom.

It is also called tinder fungus, false tinder fungus, hoof fungus, tinder conk, tinder polypore or ice man fungus.

The fungus we can use for making products from it is called horse hoof fungus or Fomes Fomentarius.

It is a parasitic species, which lives on birch trees. If the environmental conditions are good enough, it can grow really fast.

The fomes releases spores, and the spores penetrate into the cracks of the birch tree barks. The cracks in the barks of the birch trees usually appear after a very cold and windy winter.

After the spores have entered into the birch tree, mycelium starts to grow from it.

After the mycelium starts decaying the tree, fruiting bodies appear on the tree, and the cycle begins anew.

The fruiting body is the part of the fungus we are looking for.

Where do we start searching? In birch forest you may think. And you think it right :-D

The older the forest, the better. We need old, strong, but infected birch trees, with fruiting bodies on it.

To be continued...