razor strop

Description:

Piptoporus betulinus, commonly known as the birch polypore, birch bracket, or razor strop, is one of the most common polyporous bracket fungi and, as the name suggests, grows almost exclusively on birch trees. The brackets burst out from the bark of the tree, and these fruiting bodies can last for more than a year. Technically, it is an edible mushroom, with a strong, pleasant "mushroomy" odor but a bitter taste. It is said to have medicinal properties, and the velvety cut surface of the fruiting body were used as a strop for finishing the finest of edges on razors. Dried specimens have also been used as tinder, and this fungus was carried by "Ötzi the Iceman" – the 5,000 year old mummy found in Tyrol (wikipedia)

Habitat:

Scientific name: Piptoporus betulinus (Bull.: Fr.) Karst Derivation of name: Piptoporus means "a polypore that falls off"; betulinus means "inhabiting birch (Betula) trees." Synonymy: Polyporus betulinus Bull.: Fr. Common names: Birch polypore. Phylum: Basidiomycota Order: Polyporales Family: Fomitopsidaceae Occurrence on wood substrate: Parasitic and saprobic; solitary or grouped on living or dead birch (Betula spp.) trees, also on stumps and logs; year-round. Dimensions: Caps 2.5-25 cm wide and 1-7.5 cm thick; stipes (if present) are lateral, thick and up to 6 cm long. Upper surface: Whitish to pale gray-brown with darker brown streaks; smooth and glabrous when young; margin rounded and inrolled. Pore surface: White at first, yellowish-brown in age; depressed from the margin; pores 3-4 per mm.. Edibility: Apparently edible when young and tender and not too bitter (messiah.edu)

Notes:

At the following website read about Oetzi, the 5000 year old "Ice man." He had among his possessions pieces of this fungus which might have been used for medicinal purposes ( http://www.messiah.edu/Oakes/fungi_on_wo... ), ----------Ötzi the Iceman (pronounced [ˈœtsi] ), Similaun Man, and Man from Hauslabjoch are modern names for a well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived about 5,300 years ago. The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, near Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy. The nickname comes from the Ötztal (Ötz valley), the Italian Alps in which he was discovered. He is Europe's oldest natural human mummy, and has offered an unprecedented view of Chalcolithic Europeans. His body and belongings are displayed in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi_t... )