Birch Polypore

A very typical looking Birch Polypore conk photographed a few days ago in the Forest of Preuilly.

Birch Polypore Fomitopsis betulina (Fr. Polypore du bouleau) is one of the many fungi that feeds off wood. Like other polypores it forms a fleshy leathery 'horse's hoof' fruiting body known as a conk. The upper surface can be white, brown or grey and is a bit suede like. The underside has fine pores with white spores. The flesh is white. It only attacks birch trees, almost always those which are old or already weakened. If you see a bracket fungus on a birch tree here it will very likely be Fomitopsis betulina. The birch trees that are attacked may have been stressed by a loss of light as other trees grow up around them, or by drought or fire. The fruiting bodies can appear singly or in groups. Nevertheless the Birch Polypore is unlikely to kill the tree very quickly, if at all ultimately. This species is much less aggressive than other polypores, but like them, it causes white rot.

 

The underside of a large conk which I found on the ground several days after first photographing it. The birch tree host had been blown over by the wind.

The fruiting body can be up to 20 cm across and 6 cm thick. It smells and tastes a bit sour. You can safely do a taste and spit test as the mushroom is not toxic, but its cork like consistency means that it is not considered edible. Detached from the tree and held in the hand they are heavier than you would expect.

 

A series of Birch Polypore conks all the way up a dying birch trunk.

Like other polypore species it has been used by humans from prehistoric times up until the 20th century as a firelighter. It has also been used to treat parasitic intestinal worms, and has anti-inflammatory and antibiotic properties. Ötzi, the 5300 year old mummy found in an Alpine glacier, was carrying Birch Polypore, possibly for its medicinal properties.

Underside.

Finding Fluorescence

Simon bought me a UV torch for my birthday. It arrived a couple of weeks ago and we've been madly checking the firewood before putting it in the stove, and fungi and lichen in the forest when we walk. 

 

This unidentified fungus on a chestnut firewood log looks white under daylight but fluoresces turquoise under UV light.

UV torches are the latest toy for naturalists. They can be used for looking at flowers, insects, scorpions, lichens or animal eyeshine at night. They are useful for geologists too, as some minerals fluoresce.

Humans can't see ultra violet light, but lots of animals such as insects and birds can. Somewhat to my surprise there is a whole project in iNaturalist, the global biodiversity monitoring citizen science website, on UV fluorescent organisms. 

Simon had to do lots of research to make sure he bought the right product. The right frequency (365 nm) is important. 

Once it gets a bit warmer and less wet we'll have to set up some experiments in the garden at night.

Walking Around Chaumussay in Early Spring

On Friday 20 February Simon and I did a 2 kilometre circuit at Chaumussay. We wanted to check on the river water level of the Claise and the colony of wild daffodils that grows by the voie verte (greenway). The temperature was 12°C, there was no wind to speak of, and it wasn't raining. Since France has been experiencing the longest period of continuous rain since records began (36 days and counting) having an afternoon when it wasn't raining was noteworthy. The walk took us about half an hour.

 

The Claise is high but not unusually so for this time of year. Some riverside gardens and fields are flooded, but there is no real threat to life or property.

Silky Wall Feather Moss Homalothecium sericeum (Fr. Homalothécie soyeuse) on a low garden wall.

Grey Cushioned Grimmia moss Grimmia pulvinata on a low garden wall.

Colony of Wild Daffodil Narcissus pseudonarcissus (Fr. Narcisse jaune).

Primrose Primula vulgaris (Fr. Primavère acaule).

Lesser Celandine Ficaria verna (Fr. Ficaire fausse-renoncule), one of the most important sources of pollen for early emerging bees.

Cherry-plum Prunus cerasifera (Fr. Prunellier de Myrobolan) blossom, with a male non-biting midge from the Chironomidae family of flies. The larvae of these midges are known as blood worms (Fr. vers de vase).

European Ash Fraxinus exelsior (Fr. Frêne élevé) flowers.

Crocuses in a public garden.

Gilled Polypore

The Gilled Polypore Trametes betulina (Fr. Lenzite du bouleau) is rather an anomaly. It has recently been put in the genus Trametes. From above it looks like a Trametes, but underneath it has gills. No other Trametes species has gills, they have pores, and jolly handy it is for distinguishing Trametes bracket fungi from other similar genera, such as Stereum (which have smooth somewhat velvety undersides). Rather sadly the 'approved' English name has also been changed to the prosaic 'Gilled Polypore' from the romantic 'Birch Mazegill'.

The upper side is usually pale (white, cream and/or grey) but they can be brown, orange or red too. There can also be green from algae growing on the surface. The individual brackets are between 2 and 10 centimetres across and 2-3 centimetres deep. Growing directly from trunks or branches the fruiting body can usually only develop into a sort of half moon, not a full round. There are visible growth bands and quite a bit of somewhat bristly fuzz. The outer edge is rounded, not a contrasting colour and sometimes lobed. The brackets are quite thin, just a few millimetres. 

Underneath there are pale brown crowded irregular gills, with creamy white spores. The brackets are leathery, with white flesh if cut in half. 

This species is most often found on Birch, either living or dead, but it can also grow on Oak and Beech, and sometimes Alder and Hazel. It usually grows in groups, but can be a single isolated bracket. It is uncommon, but also possibly often disregarded because on first appearance it just looks like an old faded Turkey-tail T. versicolor, which is very abundant. If you don't turn it over, or identify the wood it is growing on as Birch, you will misidentify it.

The species is one of those which causes white rot. It is not toxic, but not worth eating.

Jelly Cakes

Jelly Cakes are, as far as I know, an old fashioned Australian speciality. A sort of pink raspberry flavoured alternative to the lamington (invented by a French chef in Australia -- see my previous blog post on the subject https://daysontheclaise.blogspot.com/2020/12/lamingtons.html).

 

Jelly Cake recipes are to be found in old Australian Women's Weekly or Country Women's Association (CWA) publications. Here is the one I used https://www.thecookingcollective.com.au/jelly-cakes/.

Jelly is not something French people understand or get on with in the way Australians do. Aussie jelly comes in packets of flavoured and sweetened crystals to be made up by adding water, so it mystifies British people too, who are used to a sort of gelled concentrate.

Anyway, a kind friend sent several packets of proper Aeroplane brand jelly crystals, so I made a trifle with one packet, and some jelly cakes with another. 

I filled my jelly cakes with whipped coconut cream, adding vanilla, sugar, whole raspberries and raspberry coulis. Coconut and raspberries is a nicer combination than dairy cream and raspberries in my opinion.

Further Reading: The story of Aeroplane Jelly on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroplane_Jelly.

Cherry Galls

 Cherry Galls (Fr. Galles-cerise du chêne) are caused on Oak trees by the tiny gall wasp Cynips quercusfolii. I've never seen the wasp, which is only 3 mm long, but I regularly encounter the galls on oak leaves in the forest.

The wasps develop on the oak trees, where they are responsable for the formation of spherical galls on the underside of leaves. 

This abundant gall was appears each year in two forms, one which reproduces sexually and one which reproduces asexually ie by parthenogenesis. In the summer, after mating, the female wasps lay their eggs on the oak leaves. Then their larvae develop in the galls on the underside of the leaves, a single 2 mm larva in each gall. The galls start off as yellow-green and transform into red-brown. 

 

Spangle and Cherry galls on oak leaves.

The adult parthenogenic female wasps emerge from the galls in winter, and in the spring they lay eggs on the new leaf buds on oak trees. A gall forms, but it is very different, being only a few millimetres across and covered in red filaments. The sexual wasps emerge from these galls in May and June. In the past it was believed that the parthenogenic and sexual wasps represented two different species.

Water (Snap!)

Two years ago we were having our salon and bedroom insulated. We were staying in Boussay at the time, so we got to see the effect of all the rain. Almost exactly two years ago we took a photo of the Claise river flooding its water meadows.

Yesterday we stopped and took a photo of the Claise river flooding its water meadows.

Can you tell which is which?

And which one is the more flooded?

Another Snow Episode!

 View Sunday morning from our spare bedroom, looking west.

I got up on Sunday morning and was truly astonished to look out the window and see that it had snowed over night. By the time I saw it the drizzling rain had set in for the day, but the snow lasted in patches until lunchtime. So this is the third (or maybe fourth) snow episode of this winter. We've also had 100 ml of rain in the past fortnight and all the rivers are full. The flood meadows along the Indrois, Indre and Creuse all look like lakes. Some roads have been cut and we have a yellow flood warning.

 

View from our attic window, looking north.

Fish Pie

 The fish, vegetable and white sauce filling for the pie.

 

We love a good fish pie, ideally with a mixture of smoked and oily fish with veggies in a white sauce, and topped with mashed potato. So when I found some smoked haddock at the supermarket, I quickly put together the other ingredients and made fish pie. Smoked haddock is a treat which I don't see very much here, so I was delighted. And when I do come across it, it is generally artisanal rather than industrial, so even more of a treat.

 

Ready for the oven.

 

Ingredients

1 kg potatoes, scrubbed, peeled (optional) and cut into 5 cm chunks

125 g butter (50 g for the mash, 50 g to sweat the veggies, and 25 g to dot on top)

1 tbsp olive oil

100 g cream

 500 ml milk (for making the sauce, but use 3 tbsp in the mash)

A pinch each of salt and ground white pepper

150 g smoked haddock

200 g salmon

An onion, sliced

A bay leaf

A leek, cleaned and sliced

A large carrot, cut into dice

100 g frozen peas

3 tbsp flour 

1 tbsp chopped fresh herb (optional, whatever you fancy, eg parsley)

A few drops of bottled lemon juice

Method

1. Turn the oven on and heat to 190°C.
2. Boil the potatoes, drain and mash with butter, cream, milk, salt and white pepper.
3. Skin the fish.
   
4. Bring the milk to boiling point in a large saucepan and add the fish, fish skin, half the onion, and bay leaf. 
5. Reduce the heat and simmer for 6 minutes.
6. Heat butter and oil in a large pan and soften the remaining onion, leek and carrot for 15 minutes, on low heat with the lid on, stirring occasionally.
7. Using a fish slice remove the fish from the milk and set aside.
8. Add the flour to the veggies and mix it in well.
9. Cook on a low heat for several minutes.
10. Gradually strain the warm milk into the veggies, stirring constantly.
11. Simmer for a few minutes to thicken.
12. Add the frozen peas to the veggies in sauce.
13. Break the fish into chunks and gently incorporate into the veggies and sauce.
14. Pour the fish, veggies and sauce into a large deep oval pie dish.
15. Sprinkle herbs and lemon juice over the fish mixture.
16. Carefully cover the pie with mash, a spoonful at a time until the whole surface is thickly covered.
17. Go over the top with a fork to both even it out and ensure rough bits which will brown in the oven.
18. Dot the top with the remaining butter and place the dish on an oven tray because it will bubble up and over.
19. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
20. Serves six, with steamed broccoli.

 

Mash ready to dollop on top.

Hairy Curtain Crust

Hairy Curtain Crust Stereum hirsutum (Fr. Stérée hirsute) is an abundant and widespread bracket fungus species in Tourangelle forests. Sometimes grey in colour, but most often yellowy orange, with a white edge and the top surface covered in short greyish hairs that create a nap like velveteen cloth. The wavy edged semi-circular brackets are leathery and about 5 cm across. The spores are colourless. The species grows on the dead wood of deciduous trees. It is not the sort of mushroom anyone would eat unless they are into cardboard.

 

The smooth orange underside.

The species has a number of lookalikes and it is necessary to examine the underside carefully. It should be smooth and orange, and not change colour when bruised (an indication it is a different Stereum species). If the underside is creamy white, has pores, or little warts then think about alternative identifications such as Aleurocystidiellum, Trametes or Eichleriella. It is very tough and can be very visible all year round, even during droughts. Many mycolologists have observed that it is particularly abundant after a fire.

One sure way of identifying both species is if there is Golden Ear Tremella aurantica in proximity to Hairy Curtain Crust. The Golden Ear is a parasite of the Hairy Curtain Crust, and will slowly envelope and consume it.

A Descartes Memorial

There's a plaque in Descartes, in a slightly out of the way car park, that we have noticed, but never stopped to read.

In the 1930s, André Goupille was a veterinarian living with his family in La Haye-Descartes (now Descartes). When France was divided during the Second World War, the German demarcation line passed close to their home. Because of his profession, André held a permanent pass allowing him to cross the line. From 1940 onward, he organized a clandestine network to help people cross, involving his wife Jeanne, their four teenage children, and their housekeeper, Odette Metais. Together, they assisted approximately 2,000 individuals, including Jews fleeing persecution, escaped prisoners of war, Allied pilots, and members of the Resistance. They also transported messages and intelligence to London and sometimes sheltered refugees for several days.

Their courage is documented by letters of gratitude from those they helped, including Jewish refugees who had escaped from Drancy. In January 1942, André was arrested for carrying incriminating documents but managed to secure his release by claiming they were linked to black-market activities. He then continued his work from the southern zone, joined later by Jeanne. After the German invasion of the southern zone, their resistance activities expanded to include receiving parachute drops.

In February 1944, the entire group was arrested and deported to Nazi concentration camps. Remarkably, all survived. In 2000, Yad Vashem honored André and Jeanne Goupille, their children, and Odette Metais as Righteous Among the Nations.

Pierre and Denise Renard also lived in La Haye-Descartes during the Second World War. Pierre was involved in the French Resistance and helped escaped prisoners of war and downed Allied airmen cross into the southern zone. His actions expanded when a local hotel owner informed him that the Freudman family, Belgian Jews seeking refuge in France, had been abandoned by smugglers after being robbed of their money.

Pierre rescued the family—two parents and their two-year-old twin daughters—and brought them to his home, where they were temporarily hidden in a small hut in the courtyard. Denise, a schoolteacher, cared for them and ensured they had food and basic necessities. One morning before dawn, she provided the family with supplies and forged identity papers before bidding them farewell. Pierre then guided them by indirect routes across the demarcation line and placed them on a bus bound for Vichy. The following day, he visited them to make sure they were safe.

Pierre Renard sought no reward for his actions, motivated solely by resistance to the occupation and compassion for the persecuted. In 1944, he was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Dachau. Though he survived the camp, he died shortly after the war due to illness and suffering. In 1969, Yad Vashem recognized Pierre and Denise Renard as Righteous Among the Nations.

Luminescent Panellus

Luminescent Panellus Panellus stipticus (Fr. Panelle astringente) is a small creamy brown mushroom that grows in groups on the wood of dead deciduous trees, typically on beech, oak and birch, but also sometimes on alder, hazel, chestnut and ash. The individual fruiting bodies are no more than 4 cm across, fan shaped on short horizontal stems, and quite leathery. The cap surface is dry and the mushrooms do not have a distinctive odour. The spores are white (useful for distinguishing them from similar looking Crepitodus spp, whose spores are brown).

It's considered toxic if you ingest it, and very bitter, leading to its alternative English name of Bitter Oysterling. The level of toxicity is not life threatening and it is safe to try some on your tongue if you are a healthy adult, but the impressive bitterness will take some time to develop. If you chew it as well it is astringent, so the whole experience is quite unpleasant. Make sure not to swallow, but spit it out. 

The 'approved' English name suggests that they are bioluminescent. Sadly this seems to be a trait of part of the North American population of this species, but the European ones are not bioluminescent. 

It is believed to have been used in the past to staunch bleeding wounds due to its astringency, and as a purgative.

As an agent of decomposition Luminescent Panellus is a key contributor to the health of the forest and contributes to the creation of habitat for numerous small creatures. It also permits the recycling of nutrients in the forest floor, and may have potential for removing organic industrial pollutants from waste water in the environment from olive processing. In the forest the fungus breaks down both lignin and cellulose and causes white rot. It tends to appear in younger regenerating parcels of forest rather than mature parcels. Deer and slugs will eat them.

Vote For Us!

 Since 2021 Allianz (an insurance company) has partnered with La Sauvegarde de l'Art Français (a charity dedicated to saving French ecclesiastical artworks) to identify works of art at risk. After verification of their eligibility they are presented to a jury of representatives from the two organisations, who select two or three finalists from each region.

 

The painting The Descent from the Cross which hangs in the Abbey in Preuilly is one of the three finalists for Centre-Val de Loire.

These works are then put to a popular vote, that determines which will be conserved.

The municipality of Preuilly sur Claise and the local history society (SAP), who will also contribute to the restoration fund, are calling for everyone to vote for the painting.

It is very simple. Go to the website by clicking on the link below. Scroll down and select Centre-Val de Loire on the map. Choose the Preuilly project from the choices that will appear below. You will need to fill in your name and a valid email address.

https://www.sauvegardeartfrancais.fr/sondages/allianz-plus-grand-musee-de-france-vote-2026/

This is quite urgent as voting ends on 22 February. 

This large painting can be seen in the nave of the Abbey Saint Pierre.  It is a good quality copy of the work by Jean Jouvenet (1697) on display at the Louvre, and it deserves to be restored.

Preuilly sur Claise is counting on you!

Chateau de Verneuil

We had an appointment with Simon's urologist a week ago and used the taxi-ambulance to get there. On the way the driver stopped to pick up a third passenger in Verneuil sur Indre. We got talking and she was able to give us the latest on the chateau in the village.

It is a particularly lovely chateau that was for many years a residential home for disadvantaged children. When they moved out the chateau was acquired by an investor who announced very grand plans, which included apartments, a country club style hotel, an equestrian centre and a camp ground. Unfortunately it turned out he was operating a Ponzi scheme, and it eventually fell apart.

Our taxi companion told us that the chateau has now been bought by a private individual who intends restoring it and making it his home. He already has a chateau in Morbihan, so we hope he has deep pockets. The Chateau de Verneuil looks lovely in the landscape, but it has suffered many decades of neglect, so to turn it into a comfortable home will take considerable investment. Nevertheless, everyone is very happy to have such a buyer turn up. It is the perfect solution. Apparently the new owner has fallen in love with the Touraine and with the Chateau de Verneuil.

These photos were taken by Monica in September 2024.