Finding Reliable Chaga Mushrooms in the Wild, and in the Store Today

Chaga mushrooms (or inonotus obliquus) have been widely accepted for their medicinal properties today that instill a strong and reliable vitality function for your health and wellness routine. The tough part now is finding these mushrooms in the wild, or even in the store, as so many folks have jumped on board with mushroom-powered wellness today.

Additionally, you can find other “functional” (or adaptogenic) mushrooms in organic grocery stores, online shops, and more. Each one carries different body-strengthening properties, as well as cognitive function support. Some of these alternative mushrooms include:

• Turkey tail

• Cordyceps

• Red reishi

• Lion’s mane

Now, with each of these, there’s potential for look alikes to pop up. When you’re scowering tree bark through a forest to get that perfect hornbeam or yellow birch tree find for chaga, it’s easy to misidentify them. This applies across the board for all functional mushrooms, and since they’ve become more popular in health and wellness, you’ll be hard-pressed to find them in the wild.

Fortunately, Troomy makes it easier than ever to add functional mushrooms into your diet fast. Since chaga, lion’s mane, cordyceps, and other functional mushrooms have risen so high in popularity, there are a variety of resources you can use in online shops, local shops, and harvesting on your own to make sure you’re familiar with them when you are able to find a good source.

What is Chaga?

Chaga itself actually isn’t a mushroom at all, as a “mushroom” is synonmous with the growth of spores. Instead, chaga is a portion of that symbiotic relationship (or porodial fungus) as a potent piece with functional power in antixoidants, fruiting bodies, proteins, and vitamins.

Primarily found in northern hemisphere countries like Canada, Russia, Siberia, and a large part of the continent of North America, it utilizes a parasitic fungus relationship with its host tree to develop quality nutrients like betulinic acid, antioxidants, proteins, and more. Previously, it was only used in folk medicine largely around the world. Now, the mushroom has significant clinical, medically-studied health benefits to take advantage of.

With this rise in popularity, it's harder to find the "real stuff" anymore, considering how often you'll see other growths on trees in the wild that just are lookalikes comparable to chaga. Luckily, with its strong support offerings, it remains versatile in how you can add it your day with proven providers that offer quick solutions rather than hunting it down yourself.

The chaga mushroom can be blended into coffees, powders, and has some earthy and vanilla notes of flavor. Chaga extract that most folks will use today can pop up in all kinds of blends, especially teas and capsules that are easily accessible in online shops or organic grocery stores. This is often due to the variety of health benefits they’re linked to.

Benefits of Chaga Mushrooms

• Fighting inflammation

• Reducing cholesterol

• Balancing high blood sugar

• Immune system support

• Sleep habit improving properties

• Reduced risk of developing diseases/other ailments

On top of these core areas, the chaga mushroom has very minimal side effects that is has been linked to. The handful you’ll want to be mindful are reactions to blood-thinning medication, allergic reactions, or abdominal pain. Although, if you do experience significant pain or ailments, seek medical attention or advice from a health care provider immediately.

Overall, chaga mushrooms are largely beneficial and versatile as a daily supplement. There are few opportunities The trick now comes down to finding the perfect blend to get them into your diet fast.

How to Identify Chaga

Chaga will look like burnt brownies or a bit of charred bark. It’s usually in colder climates, but you can find it in most grocery stores for a reference point to learn what to look for.

Harvesting wild chaga and growing it yourself is 100% a viable route to improving your health and wellness routine. However, if you’re unfamiliar with caring and cultivating mushrooms like chaga, it’s going to take some work to identify and grow your own.

Still, it might be worth trying once you’re familiar with where you can find it, what it looks like, and “lookalikes” that could be a bit confusing.

Where Does Chaga Grow?

Mainly found in northern, colder climates, the chaga mushroom is often found on birch, alder, beech, and maple trees that are a major part of their growth. If you’re looking for it in the United States, your best bet is Minnesota, North Carolina, or Washington.

The chaga fungus has two primary routes to be grown today: cultivated and wild. While wild growth has been connected to fueling stronger benefits, the majority of supplement providers will be using chaga in its cultivated form. That simply means it’s grown in rice or another foundation source rather than on naturally growing birch or maple trees.

The Distinctive Chaga Structure

Chaga’s genetic structure is what allows it to be such a high-functioning daily supplement. It can quickly allow your body to get the nutrients it needs for a performance-driven day in the office, at school, or anywhere in between.

For the most part, folks have taken advantage of beta-glucan and polysaccharides composition for their immune system support, or just general sickness aversion. This can be hard to do though, as harvesting wild chaga can be a bit difficult with how many similar lookalikes there are.

What are Chaga Look-alikes?

Tinder conk is what you might see in the wild that could be mistaken for chaga. The same goes for tree burls in general which can pop up with many different types of trees, which is something to account for if you’re looking on your own as well.

The chaga you’re looking for is a part of the birch, willow, or chestnut tree that can have very similar hardness to the lookalikes (phellinus igniarius, for example), but is primarily different in the size and shape. Take a look at what some outgrowths of birch trees or tumor-like growths may look like on trees.

Questions to Ask Yourself to Identify Chaga

• Is this simply a tree burl, or does it resemble the shape of naturally growing chaga?

• Could this climate support chaga?

• Is this the right ecosystem for chaga to grow?

• What kind of tree is it growing on?

• Is the growth cone-like (chaga) or rounded?

While it might be hard to answer some of these questions on the fly, it’s worth considering at least when you’re on the lookout for these mushrooms in the wild. However, once you have a bit of chaga harvesting under your belt, you might want to pursue cultivating your own.

Can I Harvest Chaga Sustainably?

Absolutely! Growing chaga yourself and harvesting it is entirely possible on a regular basis in your own garden or backyard area.

However, this will take some elbow grease. It’s not going to be the easiest thing to find them in the first place, and will require special attention even from your average flowers or plants in the garden.

There are some instances where it can take up to 20 years for chaga to fully develop, and given the commercial scarcity of the mushroom, Paul Stamets and others have agreed its “availabilty and recover (are) in doubt.”

Your best bet if you want to get chaga into your diet with zero hassle is mushroom extract supplements. This will allow you to see the benefits first hand at a wallet-friendly price, and still understand a bit more about how the mushroom functions.

How Can I Take Advantage Of Chaga's Healing Properties?

Daily Use

Getting chaga mushrooms implemented into your daily routine is a fantastic step to staying consistent with functional support. Think of them having a similar relationship to how vitamins operate.

This can get expensive with raw mushrooms, as well as become time consuming. Grabbing two-months worth of mushroom support in one bottle might be a little more wallet-friendly, but it’s up to you and what your goals are with chaga.

Mushroom Mixes

More isn’t always better, but in the right serving sizes? You can expound your daily functional support to boost a much wider variety of areas and incentivize staying consistent with chaga.

Daily for example at Troomy uses 14 different mushrooms (including chaga) to offer a quality daily vitamin that reaches a ton of different areas of your day. At 2000mg per gummy, you can get complete support from functional mushrooms with just one gummy a day. 

Trying Different Blends to Stay Fresh

All kinds of mushroom supplements are developed daily to offer chaga and other adaptogenic mushrooms in your diet. Teas, coffees, capsules, gummies, and more. Coming in all shapes and sizes, these blends will help you avoid those lookalike chaga mushrooms and keep your daily function maximized.

Final Thoughts on Chaga’s Lookalikes, and Giving Troomy Nootropics a Try Today!

Overall, chaga’s a fantastic place to get started with adaptogenic mushroom support. Be mindful when looking out for false chaga mushrooms, and any wild-harvested mushrooms you think you’ve found yourself. Lookalikes are frustrating to deal with, and can be quickly avoided with chaga supplements from a professional. Its sister mushrooms like the mycelium-based Lion’s mane, cordyceps, and others can pair up well to reshape your daily routine from start to finish, and chaga is the perfect cornerstone to introduce you to fast-acting, high-quality daily functionality.

Once you get through the lookalikes and find a route to cultivate your own, chaga is a reliable daily supplement for use in cooking, supplements and more. We recommend trying Daily gummies with Troomy to see the value of a mulit-mushroom blend that leads with chaga and lion’s mane, combining for improved immune system function, better focus, increased productivity, and more.

So why wait? Start finding your “True Me” with Troomy today!