FungusPolyporaceae
Tinder Fungus
Fomes fomentarius
- Habitat
- Living and dead Beech and Birch trunks throughout temperate and boreal Europe
- Substrate
- Parasitic/saprotrophic, white rot of hardwood
Ecological relationships
Parasitises
European BeechFagus sylvaticaPrimary white-rot parasite of living Beech; causes extensive heartwood decay that creates the cavities essential for hole-nesting birds.
Silver BirchBetula pendulaMajor parasite of Silver Birch in northern European forests; often co-occurs with Birch Polypore on the same host.
Grows on
AspenPopulus tremulaSaprotrophic and weakly parasitic on Aspen in boreal and montane woodland.
Symbiosis with
Black WoodpeckerDryocopus martiusPreferentially nests in Beech trunks infected with Tinder Fungus. The fungus softens heartwood while the bird's cavity promotes further fungal colonisation (Zahner et al. 2012).
Lesser Spotted WoodpeckerDryobates minorExcavates nests in birch and aspen heartwood softened by Tinder Fungus; fungal decay is near-prerequisite for cavity creation.