Most of the mushrooms we eat for food have a lifespan of only 3 to 5 days. The lifespan of reishi mushroom is said to be 2 to 4 months. Sanghwang mushroom is cultivated for 3 to 6 months. Then what about chaga mushroom? Chaga lives at least 10 years, and as long as 20 years.
A long lifespan means that the mushroom is rich in nutrients. Mushrooms with a short lifespan use their nutrients for growth. Mushrooms with a long lifespan, on the other hand, store their nutrients not for growth but for survival.
Let us take a brief look at the life of chaga mushroom.
First, the chaga fungus, which can be called the seed of chaga mushroom, attempts to penetrate into the interior of a birch tree through wounds and the like on the birch. In this process, however, most of the chaga fungus fails to take hold and dies because of the birch's resistance. The chaga fungus that survives by chance takes its place inside the birch and begins a new life.
The chaga fungus puts down roots in the birch and grows by eating the birch's sap and nutrients. The roots of chaga grow to a size of 1 to 2 m. In this way, chaga grows inside the birch for 5 to 10 years. During this time, it is impossible to identify the chaga from the outside.
At last, the chaga breaks through the bark of the birch and comes out. Because the weather in Siberia is cold and harsh, it grows very little by little while making a black, thick outer skin. From this point on, people can identify the chaga with their eyes, and it resembles a lump formed on a birch.
Chaga grows little by little by stealing and eating the birch's nutrients, while the birch, deprived of its nutrients by the chaga, slowly dries up. Normally, the lifespan of a birch is about 100 years. However, about 10 to 20 years after the chaga breaks through the bark, the birch, which has suffered from a lack of nutrients, eventually dies. And the chaga, cut off from its nutrient supply, soon meets its death as well.
In this way, the lifespan of chaga is 15 to 30 years after it puts down roots in the birch, and 10 to 20 years after it breaks through the birch's bark. Its lifespan is so long that it is difficult to compare with other mushrooms.
Siberia, where chaga grows, is so cold that the weather in midwinter drops to 30 to 40 degrees below zero. It is far too harsh an environment for growth.
Therefore, chaga sets survival, not growth, as its goal. It grows only about 1 to 2 cm a year. It does not use its nutrients for growth but piles up nutrients little by little over a long period for survival. This is why chaga's nutrients are overwhelmingly richer than those of other mushrooms.
The nutrients of chaga can ultimately be said to be the nutrients of the birch. The birch's nutrients are piled up little by little in the chaga. Two chaga mushrooms cannot grow on a single birch.
Even if two chaga mushrooms happen to put down roots, in the end only one chaga remains and the other chaga dies. This is because the complete nutrients of one birch tree are needed for one chaga to grow. In other words, the nutrients of one chaga are the nutrients of one birch tree.
In Siberia, the birch is a tree rich in natural nutritional components, with everything from its roots to its trunk and each and every leaf used as medicinal material. However, extracting only the physiologically active components from such a birch is an impossible task, both technically and economically.
Yet the chaga, which has put down roots in the birch and grown for decades, preserves the physiologically active components of such a birch intact.
Because chaga lives long, and because chaga lives on a living birch, the nutrients of chaga are tremendous.
- Kinam Oh, kinam_oh@hanmail.net
