Illustrations: NB 1253; WD 1602.
Some perennial polypores. [Plate 48].
Fomes fomentarius (Fries) Kickx Tinder fungus
Cap: 90-300 mm, hoof-shaped, thick, broadly attached to the substrate, zoned with yellow-brown and shades of grey; its margin is blunt and fawn or pale brownish.
Tubes: layered, cinnamon-brown with pale cinnamon pores with a whitish bloom.
Flesh: cinnamon-brown or buff and woolly.
Spore-print: white.
Spores: elongate, ellipsoid, very long, hyaline under the microscope, 15-18 × 5-6 µm, and not ornamented. The flesh contains both thick- and thin-walled hyphae. It grows on birch and less frequently on beech. The flesh has been used in dentistry, in manufacturing fancy articles, such as mats, and was the basis of the tinder used in flint-boxes.
Illustrations: LH 65; NB 1171; WD 1001.