Laricifomes officinalis (Vill.) Kotl. & Pouzar, syn.: Fomitopsis officinalis (Vill.) Bondartsev & SingerEN: Quinine fungus, Larch fungus, DE: Lrchenschwamm, Apotheker-, PurgierschwammSlo.: mecesnova kresiljaa, mecesnova gobaDat.: Aug. 18. 2018Lat.: 46.4 Long.: 13.5 (coordinates are approximate only)Not published: Lat.: 46,46876 Long.: 13,51858Code: Bot_1080/2017_DSC8580Picture file names: from Laricifomes-officinalis_raw_1 to Laricifomes-officinalis_raw_6.Habitat: Old Larix decidua stands; steep mountain slope, north aspect; partly sunny; calcareous, skeletal ground; average precipitations about 2.000 -2.500 mm/year, elevation 1.750 m (5.600 feet), alpine phytogeographical region.Substratum: old Larix decidua tree.Place: Zajzera (Valbruna valley), West Julian Alps, FriuliVenezia Giulia, Italy EC.Not published: Mont Kamniti Lovec, 2.071 m (6.795 feet) mountain group; northwest of the pick; above the dirt road from village Ovja vas (Valbruna) to Svete Viarje (Borgo Lussari), near mountain trail 617, West Julian Alps, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy EC. Comments: Laricifomes officinalis is a rare, endangered and protected species in Slovenia as well as in most of Europe. In the Slovenian fungi data base (Ref.: 6) only three occurrences are stated. However, lately more of them have become known (Ref.: 3), yet, still not much more than ten to fifteen. The fungus is more frequent in North America and North and Far East Asia. The main reason that it almost disappeared from Europe seems intensive collection of its fruit bodies. Laricifomes officinalis is a famous medical fungus having almost miraculous healing properties, known to men for millennia. Antibiotic activities and antiviral activity of the fruiting body is scientifically proven. It is particularly respected in China and Japan. No wander, it was collected by individuals as well as commercially for pharmaceutical industry without limits. Its main substance is agaricin, which is nowadays produced synthetically. This released the pressure to collect it greatly at least from the commercial side. However, apart from agaricin the fungus contains several other biologically active compounds like carotenoids, sterols, unsaturated fatty acids, bioflavonoids and vitamins of B, P, E and A groups (Ref.: 5). That is probably the reason that individual collectors still endanger the species. For example, in Slovenia, after publishing some of newly found locations of the fungus in 2011 several of them have been vandalized in relatively short time.In Europe Laricifomes officinalis grows exclusively on very large and old Larix decidua trees (in America also on other conifers). Such trees have become very rare. They still grow on hardly accessible places in the mountains near tree level where human impact on nature is still at minimum. Scarcity of adequate substratum additionally contributes to sharp decline of Laricifomes officinalis. Successful experiments how to artificially inoculate healthy Larix decidua trees with its mycelium and how to grow it in an artificial media are reported (Ref. 4, 5). This may eventually help in preservation of this species from extinction. It's surprising that Index Fungorum and MycoBank still keep Fomitopsis officinalis as a 'current' name of this fungus in spite of several molecular studies made between 2005 and 2016, which all have proven that Laricifomes officinalis forms a separate lineage distant from Fomitopsis and represents a separate monophyletic genus (Ref.: 8).Listed in: Uredba o zavarovanih prostoiveih vrstah gliv, Uradni list RS, t. 58/2011 (Regulation of protected wild fungi, Official Gazette of Republic Slovenia, no. 58/2011), (2011). On Rdei seznam gliv v Sloveniji, Uradni list RS (Red list of fungi of Slovenia, Offitial Gazerte of Republic Slovenia), t./no. 42/2010 z dne/from 28. 5. 2010, marked by "E" representing a critically endangered species.Ref.: (1) Fungus found by and personal communication with Dr. Igor Dakskobler, Scientific Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. (2) J. Breitenbach, F. Kraenzlin, Eds., Fungi of Switzerland, Vol.2., Verlag Mykologia (1986), p 316. (3) I. Dakskobler, A. Selikar, G. Podgornik, Razirjenost in ekologija vrste Laricifomes officinalis (Vill.) Kotl. & Pouzar v Julijskih Alpah (Slovenija) (Distribution and ecology of Laricifomes officinalis (Vill.) Kotl. & Pouzar in the Julian Alps Slovenia), GozdV 69. 3 (2011); available at:
www.dlib.si/details/URN:NBN:SI:DOC-5ITWR4MN/?query=%27con... (accessed Nov. 12. 2018)(4) A. Gregori1, B. Pikur , M. Gregori, D. Jurc, Spread of the fungus Fomitopsis officinalis inoculated in stems of living larch in Slovenia; available at:
pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7f72/90c2031ddc886158844d564b331... (accessed Nov. 18. 2018)(5) M. L. Sidorenko and V. A. Semal, Production of Submerged Mycelium of Laricifomes officinalis (Vill) Kotl. et Pouzar, World Applied Sciences Journal 23 (5), (2013), p 685; available at:
pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c761/ac8d3bf3ece6ba1fe8b7390394a... (accessed Nov. 17. 2018). (6) N. Ogris (ed), Boletus informaticus, Slovenian Forestry Institute
www.zdravgozd.si/bi_index.aspx (accessed Nov. 17. 2018)(7) A. Bernicchia, Polyporaceaes l., Fungi Europaei, Vol. 10., Edizioni Candusso (2005), p 222.(8) Mei-Ling Han, Yuan Yuan Chen, Lu-Lu Shen, Jie Song, Josef Vlask, Yu-Cheng Dai, Bao-Kai Cui, Taxonomy and phylogeny of the brown-rot fungi: Fomitopsis and its related genera, Fungal diversity (2016).
