Every month, museum visitors choose the exhibit they liked the most. What they singled out for January was the Fomes fomentarius mushroom.

The Fomes fomentarius mushroom is a not edible mushroom, commonly known as the tinder fungus, tinder polypore or ice man fungus, that grows all year round alone or in groups, on tree trunks, usually on beech and oak, parasitically that causing rot. The species produces very large polypore fruit bodies which are shaped like a horse's hoof. Its flesh is hard and corky, and when dry it is flammable, which is why it was used in the past as a tinder or to keep the fire going. It was also used for its haemostatic properties, with its dry basil for cauterizing wounds. In fact, it was one of the three mushrooms found in the bag of Otzi, the ice man found mummified in the Alps, which he used to light a fire.

7/2/2025