What Trees Does Chaga Grow On?
Chaga is an adaptogenic fungus that can have excellent health benefits for banana edibles the skin and body. It isn't an factual mushroom. It's a sponger that grows on certain hardwood trees and it looks like a black, lumpy wood knot. What trees does chaga grow on? Read on below to learn further about this health- boosting fungus and where to find it!
A Quick Manual on Chaga
As a sponger,I. obliquus has a one-sided relationship with its host tree. Its enzymes beget the contemporaneous decay of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin (the three main natural ingredients that make up the wood of trees) from the heartwood of its living host. The breakdown of the heartwood weakens the tree’s structure, allowing for the first traces of what we call chaga to bag from within the tree.
Chaga can be considered a sterile honker or canker that forms on hardwood trees. This dark honker consists primarily of wood lignans and mycelium (the filaments that can be allowed of as the fungal root structure).
Some call chaga a sclerotium but as it isn't pure mycelium, like what's produced by Poria (Wolfiporia extensa), Polyporus (Polyporus umbellatus) or the Tiger Milk mushroom (Lignosus rhinocerus), this would be an incorrect characterization. In fact, one paper estimated chaga to be only around 10 mycelium (4).
Where Does Chaga Grow?
Chaga can be plant in northern regions. Canada, Russia, Siberia, northeast China, and northern areas of Europe and the United States are areas where chaga grows.
Making tea from chaga is a traditional remedy and coffee cover in these northern regions.
Finland is a country where chaga grows abundantly. It's one of the first countries to try and invest birch trees to encourage the growth of this fungus for chaga harvesting.
What Trees Does Chaga Grow On?
Geographically,I. obliquus grows on caddies of a variety of hardwood trees in cold territories (45 ° N to 50 ° N) of North America, Eastern Europe, and Asia.
While chaga grows most generally on birch trees, other species of trees generally infected include (1)
Stages of Chaga Growth
Chaga grows veritably sluggishly on its host, and it can exceed 50 cm in periphery on old trees after numerous times (2).
The decay of the heartwood can last for another 30 to 80 times, although chaga can be gathered after 3-5 times of growth. When the host tree or a part of it dies, the factual mushroom ( regenerating body) of chaga can appear.
How chaga grows stage 1
In the first stage of chaga growth, its spores have entered the birch tree, germinated, and have begun to consume the heartwood.
How chaga grows stage 2
In the alternate stage of growth, the fungus will also push toward the surface of the tree consuming the wood as it goes.
How chaga grows stage 3
In its third stage of growth, the fungus will break through the dinghy and begin to form the canker of mycelium and wood lignins we call “ chaga.”
How chaga grows stage 4
Over numerous times, the chaga grows much bigger and darker. It largely contains wood fiber & lignin which house numerous of the nutrients plant in the host tree.
For illustration, chaga that grows on birch trees will contain betulinic acid and its precursor, betulin. These triterpenes ( natural factory composites) have potent antioxidant,anti-ulcer,anti-gastritis, and immunomodulatory goods (3).
Knowing what trees chaga grows on will help you detect and identify it. When you find this “ black gold” fungus, you can also gather part of it to make your own health- boosting chaga tea!