Chaga
Inonotus obliquus · 桦褐孔菌
Occasional锈革孔菌科💊 Medicinal
Traditionally used as a medicinal ingredient, not as food.
The same species can be described differently across regions and stages of maturity, and countless look-alike species cannot be told apart by eye. Never use the information on this page to judge whether a real mushroom is safe to eat.
How to Tell
- Black, charcoal-like, irregular mass, resembling a burnt burl
- Interior orange-brown when broken open
- Grows on the trunks of living birch
ID notes are compiled by AI from public sources, not reviewed by a mycologist, for learning only — never a basis for foraging.
Basics
- Family
- 锈革孔菌科
- Hymenium
- Pores
- Grows On
- Wood
- How Big
- 10–40 cm (overall size)
- Encounter Rate
- Occasional
- Habitat
- Trunk wounds on living birch
Fun Fact
That charcoal-like black lump on the trunk isn't the fruiting body — it's a sclerotium. The actual spore-producing part hides beneath the bark and only shows once the tree dies.
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