Birch polypore

30 Friday Jan 2026

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birch polypore, British fungi, fungus on Birch, Piptoporus betulinus, wood-rotting fungi

It’s been a very long time since I blogged about this fascinating fungus, Birch polypore (Piptoporus betulinus), also known as Razorstrop fungus, because, as I explained in An essential piece of traveller’s kit (8 February 2016), barbers once used the hard surface of this fungus to sharpen their cut-throat razors.

Birch polypore is a rotter, literally; its powers of decomposition are strong, mostly acting on the wood of dead Birches (Betulinus species) but, as Pat O’Reilly writes in Fascinated by Fungi, it may also ‘be parasitic on weakened birches’. I found this lovely specimen feeding on a dead Birch in a Cardiff park earlier this week.

An essential piece of traveller’s kit

08 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by sconzani in fungi, nature, nature photography

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birch polypore, fungus, Otzi the Iceman, Razor strop fungus

Do you remember the news about Ötzi the Iceman, the 5000-year-old mummified man found in a glacier in the Ötztal Alps in Italy in September 1991? Amongst his meagre possessions, Ötzi was carrying two types of fungi, one of which was Birch polypore (Piptoporus betulinus). It’s one of the most common bracket fungi and grows, as you might guess from the name, on birch trees.

160206 birch polypore (1)

Archaeologists speculate that Ötzi was carrying the bracket fungus for medicinal reasons – this was his first aid kit. Birch polypore is known to have both anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties – various modern survivalist websites even advise using strips of it as plasters on wounds. Some herbalists recommend it in tea to soothe the nerves and eliminate fatigue but, be warned, it can act as a laxative!

160206 birch polypore (2)

Another of this fungus’s common names is Razor strop as barbers used to sharpen their cut-throat razors on it, and ancient people like Ötzi also used it as tinder. One spark from a flint and they could start a new campfire, and they could even carry a slowly smouldering piece of dry fungus with them as they travelled.