Red-belted conk resurfaces each summer on Kalkku larch stump for 20 years
A red-belted conk has appeared each summer for about 20 years on a larch stump in Kalkku, Tampere. Its mycelium can persist for decades and continue to rot the buried roots.
Each summer a large bracket fungus appears beside a larch stump in Kalkku, and the same fruiting body has been seen there for roughly 20 years, Aamulehti says.
Tomi Kumpulainen of the Tampere Natural History Museum identifies it as the red-belted conk (Fomitopsis pinicola), a common wood-decay species on old larch and pine. Its fruiting body can reach about 40 centimetres across. It grows over several weeks, developing a bright orange rim before darkening, then hardens and dries away before winter. Although the stump and roots are long dead, Kumpulainen says the fungus’s mycelium can persist for many years and continue rotting the buried root system.
Similar finds in Tampere include a toothed bracket fungus in Finlayson Palace Park and the annual Vapriikki mushroom exhibition, which features expert identifications. Readers with local nature questions can send photos and details to [email protected]. Kumpulainen normally responds to observations from Pirkanmaa but answers other queries when possible.
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