Here in Shropshire birch can be a problem coloniser of wetland sites, contributing to the disastrous drying of important peat deposits at Fenns, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses, where the removal of trees is necessary to preserve the rare habitats of the SSSI. That doesn’t mean birch trees are ‘bad’ though – in the right place they’re a thing of beauty.

Birch woods have a completely different atmosphere to one dominated by oak or beech. Birch trees are pioneers, growing fast in light, open conditions but outlived and out-competed by other tree species as they find a foot-hold. There are two species of birch in England – silver birch (Betula pendula) and downy birch (Betula pubescens). Similar in appearance and readily hybridizing, the latter is more common on wetter ground. I’m heading for Brown Moss, near Whitchurch, where downy birch and sessile oak form a patchy cover around the shallow pools, and I should be able to find what I’m after. Not just the feel of the woodland, the autumn smell of damp forest duff, the flick of a falling leaf against my face, but some real treasure – I‘m looking for fungi.

I have to admit, I’m no expert in fungus identification. I certainly wouldn’t trust me not to poison myself, so the only types I gather to eat are field mushrooms and puffballs. However, there are other uses for fungi, and foraging isn’t just about food! The first one I want to find is horse hoof fungus (Fomes fomentarius), a bracket fungus that also goes by the names tinder fungus, tinder conk and tinder polypore, which tells you why I want some. The fist-sized fruiting bodies, shaped almost like a horse’s hoof, dry out to provide an excellent fire starter. They can be powdered to take a spark or shaved into fine pieces – either way, they will make lighting the Kelly kettle easy when dry tinder is hard to find. Light and portable, pieces of this fungus were carried by our hunter-gatherer ancestors. It was found in the possessions of Otzi, the Tyrolean Iceman, whose 5000 year old body was preserved in a glacier in the Swiss Alps – he travelled light, carrying little luggage, so the non-edible fungus must have been very important to him!

He was carrying another fungus from the birchwoods too – birch polypore (Fomitopsis betulina). Another bracket fungus, this one only grows on birches. It has a rounded, coffee-coloured cap with a rubbery feel which becomes leathery in older specimens, which were traditionally used for sharpening tools. Another name for it is razorstrop fungus. It has medicinal properties too, containing agaric acid, which is poisonous to whipworms, an intestinal parasite Otzi is believed to have suffered from. Birch polypore is also traditionally used as an anaesthetic, immunity booster, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, styptic (stops bleeding from cuts), and to fight viral and bacterial infections. It contains an antibiotic compound piptamine, which has successfully been used to treat e-coli. A very useful thing to have with you on your travels, and not only for sharpening your arrows!

While I explore the birches for useful brackets I’ll keep my eyes and ears open for foraging birds too. The small seeds of birches are enjoyed by lesser redpolls, common redpolls and siskins – winter visitors in this region – as well as mixed flocks of our resident tits and even goldcrests. Family parties of delicate long-tailed tits flitting through the branches, keeping up a constant conversation as they go, might bear me company as we all forage through the bright woodland. I’ll be reaching up for those fungi, the birds will be hanging from tiny twigs, and, as Robert Frost put it,

“One could do worse than be a swinger of birches”!
Birches, Robert Frost
The Poetry of Robert Frost (1969)