Search the Community

Hello everyone! I'm looking for a final confirmation that what I'm looking at is indeed chicken of the woods (laetiporus sulphureus). This was the firs time I actually found one. I barely noticed a bunch of bright yellow blobs growing on the base of the cherry tree. My first thought was chicken of the woods, knowing it basically has no lookalikes that are this yellow. But on further inspection I was a bit confused because I expected fan like shelves, not blobs. My confusion grew once I poked the "blobs" with my finger and noticed it's not spongy and leather like, but really like wet bread and full of transparent liquid. Later I read in the book this is exactly how young specimens are. And cherry tree is noted as a common host along side oak, beech and willow. I took these pictures in this stage on 22.05: Now I returned at the place on 06.06. and to my surprise, the few blobs really took off big time! bunch of shelves on top of each other, everything really fanned wide. Not really that yellow anymore but still enough for me to be reasonably sure it's chicken of the woods. The feel to it now is really what I expected in the first place, spongy and brittle. I'm not really sure if it's a good edible at this stage, but I don't think I would have trouble chewing it after cooking. Unfortunately, it was really low to the ground so it got tangled in with the grass and dirt. Also, bunch of beetles are boring the cherry wood around it so it's also full of the wood chips on top.. Spore print is white: I'm basically just looking for a confirmation and maybe a thought or two about edibility at this stage. Also, I keep reading about some people not having a good stomach reaction to chicken of the woods, but I can't seem to find a proper explanation is it really inability to process it or is the problem because people sometimes confuse it with another lookalike that grows on eucalyptus. Cheers!

Last year I harvested some Hen of the Woods from this large oak tree stump in my yard I had someone who was good with mushroom ID and tell me they were good and I cook them then cooked them then pickled them and have been eating them all year this year. Same tree stump now has two large mushrooms growing from it. One looks like another Hen of the Woods still kind of small the other one which is larger and all white I thought might be a chicken of the woods but I do not have any experience with IDing this type of mushroom. And the person who helped me last year is not around any help anyone could be I would appreciate it.

Hey everyone I’m Matt 24 years old, have been foraging for 2 years now. Check out these monsters I harvested the other day. It was a great day.

My father got me kind of hooked on finding mushrooms even though I tend to not eat them. It's more of a "look what I found" sort of thing. So far the only one I've been able to 100% identify is the chicken of the woods I found July 1st on the side of the road. My best guess is that due to the crazy amount of rain we had it fell off the tree or stump it was on and flipped over. The first picture is as I found it. The second is after I did my best to clean it off. Because of its unknown origins, we didn't eat it. The gravel kind of put us off it. Pretty neat for something I almost drove by! Is this early, though for a chicken of the woods in Maine?

i ordered these spawn plugs from fungi.com http://www.fungi.com/product-detail/product/chicken-of-the-woods-plug-spawn-approx-1000-plugs.html i just read that this type of chicken of the woods is laetiprous conerificola. does anyone know of this sub species of chicken of the woods plugs can grow in southern central new york (orange county)? i read that this type of chicken of the woods grows in washington. is it possible for me to grow these plugs in new york? Laetiporus conerificola Laetiporus conerificola

chicken of the woods I found on a hike yesterday

Its funny how some things in life just happen, out of no where. Case and point, i was on my way home from work yesterday when i decieded to take a back route to scout out some potential mushroom hunting areas. I came to a stop sign looked over in the yard and saw a huge chicken of the woods mushroom popping out of the ground. I quickly pulled over and went to examine the specimin. It was growing off the root of a near by dead oak tree. I walked up to the house and asked the owner if i could have them, the owner told me that he usually runs them over with a lawn mower, so he was more than happy to get rid of them. I also asked if he used any fertilizers or pesticides on his lawn, he said no. These were young and fresh, as i was cutting the stems water was running out. I collected nearly 20 pounds.....Man what a find...... and my first for chickens ever! cant wait to find more. That is my size 12 shoe in the top corner I believe these to be Laetiporus Cincinnatus, because of the white underside.