Southern Clam Shell

Fomes fasciatus

Fungusstrong against amphibians, reptiles

Common

Mycelium

While active with another fungus in play, it regains 5 HP at the start of your turn (8 with two others).

Fomes fasciatus

Photo: © Emily Summerbell (original photo) · CC BY 4.0 (licence text) · cropped

In battle

Strong against

Amphibians
Reptiles

Weak against

Mammals
Insects

Strong against: it deals 20% more damage to them. Weak against: these types deal 20% more damage to it.

The species

Fomes fasciatus, common name the Southern Clam Shell, is a pathogenic white rot fungus in the family Polyporaceae. It is found in the southeastern United States and Central and South America where it can be seen growing on various dead and living hardwood trees. It was first described by Swedish botanist Olof Swartz in Jamaica in 1788 as Boletus fasciatus. It was later transferred by Cooke to Fomes fasciatus in 1885. The genus name "Fomes" translates to tinder as its holotype was historically used to start fires and the specific epithet "fasciatus" translates to "banded", in reference to the bands of brown to grey and black colors that the top of its fruiting body displays.

F. fasciatus is in the same Genus as the better known Horse Hoof or Tinder Conk fungus Fomes fomentarius (F. excavatus), which was discovered with the 5,000 year old body of Otzi the Iceman in the Italian Alps. It has a similar morphology to F. fomentarius and has likely been confused in identifications given that both species overlap in physical features and variances. Like tinder conk and many other hard bodied wood-decay fungi, it has a trauma layer that can be harvested for tinder or making Amadou.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Fomes fasciatus, by its authors, under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

No global status on the IUCN Red List: that’s what makes this card Common.

Observations: 3,419 on iNaturalist

Wikipedia iNaturalist

Where its stats come from