Red Belted Polypore

Be Still My Beating Heart

Fomitopsis pinicola
Fomitopsis mounceae

Saprotrophic

Musical Taxonomies

*The mushroom commonly referred to as Fomitopsis pinicola in North America has been reclassified as Fomitopsis mounceae.

Pinicola now refers exclusively to the European species. The fungus’ spitting image found in North America genetically differs enough to require its own species classification.

Because I began writing this article when it was still known by its former name, this article lists pinicola as a species name, primarily because that is still the commonly used name. I want more budding mycologists to be able to find it in a search. For, as mushroom-informed as I am, I stumbled a bit when I first started finding articles about Fomitopsis mounceae, thinking I had gotten lost in a taxonomical labyrinth. This has become a familiar feeling while digging through mycologic…