Snow Shelf
This Birch Polypore mushroom (Fomitopsis betulina), on a Yellow or Gold Birch tree (Betula alleghaniensis), acts as a snow shelf in the Petersburgh woods. The yellow birch tree is native to the northeastern United States, is the tallest of the birch trees, and begins producing seeds when about 40 years old.
If you snap a twig of a yellow birch, it will smell like mint.