The small black patches and bigger lumps are all on a fallen log. At first I thought they are part of the bark. Kindly ID if they are fungi please
Hi David - the small black lumpy patches appear to be a member of Hypoxylon genus: I can faintly see the shapes of perithecia on the surface of one. A possible ID is Annulohypoxylon multiforme but there are other Hypoxylons this could be. This belongs to the broad group of ascomyectes, like the Xylaria hypoxylon in a recent posting. The second photo looks a bit more like a distortion of the tree's structure, a category which can have fungal, viral or other causes, such as a burl. But I am not sure. Chaga, in the usual way this term is used, is a non-fertile structure produced by the fungus Inonotus obliquus, which is in the polypore group of fungi. It is almost always found on standing/living birch, though it has been known to have other hosts, far less commonly. I notice that due to the excitement around Chaga, folks are cutting hunks from tree burls, from non-host tree species. An interesting volunteer de-facto experiment is therefore in progress on the effect of regular tree burl tea consumption <grin>.
From what I surfed, I came up with Hypoxylon multiforme. Is that the original naming of Annulohypoxylon multiforme. I hate this frequent splitting (possibly to get his name included in the new genus/species name), the end result being monospecific genus. Yes, often time I suspect the bigger ones are not fungus, but "callosity" from over healing growth on injured bark.
