Amazonian polypore

What is eaten

Polyporus indigenus was described as a new species from the Brazilian Amazon in a 1981 paper in Acta Amazonica, which also examined its economic importance and use. Its underground sclerotium, a hard mass formed below ground, is the part used as food, not the fruiting body.

The Amazonian form is known as pão do índio, or Indian bread. Caboclo populations have used it as food for a long time. Knowledge of it reached researchers when people dug up sclerotia during road, house and farm construction.

Confusion with a related species

Early researchers took the Amazonian fungus to be Polyporus sapurema, which also forms a pseudosclerotium and is also called Indian bread. A later review states that the two are morphologically and phylogenetically distinct and can be separated in the field.

Because two species share the local name, the page uses the scientific name for this item.

Cultivation interest

A 2012 review of Brazilian Amazonian Polyporus species in Nova Hedwigia and a 2021 paper in Agricultura Familiar discuss the potential for commercial cultivation, with emphasis on P. indigenus and P. sapurema.

The sources reviewed do not give a cultivation method, yield or storage behaviour for this species, and no current commercial data was found.

Wider food context

The Yanomami people reportedly sell more than ten Amazonian mushroom species, according to an IFG food-science paper on a related polypore. The Brazil de Fato report on a Yanomami cookbook describes mushrooms from Yanomami territory used in recipes.

Safety and identification

The sources reviewed give no toxicity assessment for P. indigenus. This page does not establish that the sclerotium is safe to eat as a general matter, and no preparation is given here.

Identify the species with a specialist before any use. Look-alike species such as P. sapurema are named in the literature.