My wife used to make Piltz-Tee (not sure of spelling) which was from a fungus she kept floating in a huge jam-jar & fed on sugar (much like a ginger-beer plant without the ginger). Every so often it would outgrow the jar & need trimming. Ugly looking thing it was: you felt that it would have your arm off at the elbow if you got too close.

I think the fungus came from a German source (hence the name?) and the tea, its product, was supposed to be a specific against rheumatism.