Name: Laricifomes officinalis.
English: Agarikon; Quinine conk.
Clades:
Polyporales.
Region: Europe, Asia, North America, Morocco.
Mycology: soft, yellow-white when young, white and chalky, decay is brown, cubically cracked, with thick white felts in large cracks; large, to two feet long, hoof-shaped or columnar; wood-decay, causes brown heart rot on conifers, Pseudotsuga, Larix; extremely bitter taste; wild Agarikon grows only in old-growth forests; longest living mushroom.
Taxonomy: Laricifomesofficinalis has DNA distinct from the genus Fomitopsis.
Culture: Indian tribes called it "bread of ghosts" in local languages, and carved fruiting bodies marked the graves of tribal shamans.
Use: Ancient Greeks to treat consumption, tuberculosis, as an elixir for long life; smallpox.
Content: chlorinated coumarins.