Chaga

Inonotus obliquus

Hymenochaetaceae

A charcoal-like birch canker simmered as a deep, vanilla-earth tonic — harvest with restraint.

Wild-harvested conk. Legal, but overharvest is a conservation issue.

Parts used: Sterile conk (sustainably sourced)
Traditional notes: Winter tonic · Stomach discomfort · Northern folk cancer legends (not a treatment)
Habitat only: Living birch (Betula) in boreal and northern temperate forests. The black, cracked conk is a canker, not a log-grown crop in any practical home sense.

Leave living birch. If you ever harvest, take a little, not a girdle.
This is a wild northern fungus. There is no kitchen-window crop.
Buy cultivated or ethically sourced — sterile conks on live trees are not a product.

Safety

Kidney stones / oxalate nephropathy Unknown wild source

Lore

A black clinker on living birch, looking like burnt charcoal until you nick it and see rust. Siberian tea, not a log-grown kit. Overharvest of slow wild cankers is the conservation problem hiding in a wellness aisle.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.