North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Kevin Moore <aleguy33@yahoo.com>]

Of course there are no known poisonous polypores in North America and the same with bracket fungi. While none of the bracket fungi is considered good to eat. Several of them are very potent medicinals. Turkey tails are probabl;y the most useful, having incredible anti-microbial properties. Better than a wide-spectrum antibiotic, turkey tails also have ani-viral and anti-fungal properties. Closest thing to a cure-all I have ever found.
Another bracket fungus, know as Reishi is known as the thousand year mushroom because of its restorative and potent anti-cancer effects. There is a close relative in the Pacific Northwest that shows all likelihood of the same or even enhanced effects as the asian fungus.

Don't think of mushrooms as just tasty treats or recreational drugs. There are many medicinal and practical uses for them as well. Seeding a vegetable garden with the elm oyster mushroom not only produces an extra crop of tasty mushrooms, but appears to cause the vegetables to grow more vigorously and be more pest resistant. Seeding orchard trees with an appropriate mycorhizzal fungus can help the do better.
While there are usually plenty of mycorhizzal organisms present in the soil, I like to use tasty edibles when I plant orchard trees. Chanterelles for hardwood fruit and nut trees and boletes for softwood nut trees such as Pigñoli or the Korean nut pine. There are several other North American softwood nut trees that are climate appropriate for most regions of the US.
If anyone is interested in using fungi in their orchars and gardens, I cna only reccommend "Mycelium Running" by Paul Stamets as a good place to start. Beyond that, I'm afraid you will have to find your own way. Mushrooms are best identified in the field by a living expert, and that is someone each person will have to find for themselves.

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From: "Jwlehman@aol.com" <Jwlehman@aol.com>
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Sat, September 25, 2010 4:00:09 PM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Mushroom Melanbopus

In a message dated 9/25/2010 1:40:41 PM Eastern Daylight Time, aleguy33@yahoo.com writes:

I would vote for Melanopus squamosus, just because it has a foot and a
polyporus grows differently. I have just checked Pomerleau Encyclopedia of
Mushroom (listing some 2000 mushrooms found in Québec) and it has a drawing
of your mushroom and a technical description. It is definitely not an oyster
mushroom

I of course will not try it, not know exactly what it is. CRFG member David Arora's thousand page book "Mushrooms Demystified" lists no Genus as Melanopus. Wonder, is there another Genus name for it?

Jerry