Description
| Species | Laetiporus sulphureus |
| Difficulty ℹ️ | 🍄🍄 |
| Spore Coloration | White |
| Ecology | Saprotrophic or Parasitic |
| Edibility | Choice |
Laetiporus is a genus of edible mushrooms found throughout much of the world. Some species, especially Laetiporus sulphureus, are commonly known as sulphur shelf, chicken of the woods, the chicken mushroom, or the chicken fungus because many think they taste like chicken.
The name “chicken of the woods” is not to be confused with another edible polypore, Maitake (Grifola frondosa) known as “hen of the woods”, or with Lyophyllum decastes, known as the “fried chicken mushroom”. The name Laetiporus means “with bright pores”.
Laetiporus sulphureus is a species of bracket fungus (fungi that grow on trees) found in Europe and North America. Its common names are crab-of-the-woods, sulphur polypore, sulphur shelf, and chicken-of-the-woods. Its fruit bodies grow as striking golden-yellow shelf-like structures on tree trunks and branches.
Old fruitbodies fade to pale beige or pale grey. The undersurface of the fruit body is made up of tubelike pores rather than gills.
The fruiting body emerges directly from the trunk of a tree and is initially knob-shaped, but soon expands to fan-shaped shelves, typically growing in overlapping tiers. It is sulphur-yellow to bright orange in color and has a suedelike texture. Old fruitbodies fade to tan or whitish. Each shelf may be anywhere from 5 to 60 centimetres (2 to 23+1⁄2 inches) across and up to 4 cm (1+1⁄2 in) thick.
The fertile surface is sulphur-yellow with small pores or tubes and produces a white spore print. When fresh, the flesh is succulent with a strong fungal aroma and exudes a yellowish, transparent juice, but soon becomes dry and brittle.
Laetiporus sulphureus is a saprophyte and occasionally a weak parasite, causing brown cubical rot in the heartwood of trees on which it grows. Unlike many bracket fungi, it is edible when young, although adverse reactions have been reported.
Some photos of this product in its wild-foraged form are sourced from iNaturalist or Wikipedia, by mikebishop21, kastik-talsu, Fluff Berger, Keith Seifert, Jake McCumber, and others. Licensed by CC-BY-SA.
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