Turkey Tail help please!

[eppe]

I'm a new member and I have been a lover of mushrooms of all types for many years. When I was a kid my favorite book was Welcome To The Mushroom Planet by Elanor Cameron. Happy to be among all you wild mushroom lovers.

I recently purchased a pound of Turkey Tails on ebay. On receiving them I was surprised to find the undersides brown instead of white to beige. When I contacted the seller he replied that his supplier assures that they are real Turkeys and that they are brown on the bottom because they are dried in an oven. Also wondering if the grey color of some of them points to false Turkey Tail. I've just started collecting fresh ones myself in a nearby woods. Bought these thinking it would be good to have
a secondary source over the cold and snowy months.

It was a decent deal but I'm wondering if I should return these. Is this a Turkey Tale or not?

[Dave W]

It's more difficult to ID dried than fresh material. The brown color on the fertile surface may be due to oven-drying. I don't know, as I do not dry mushrooms in an oven. I don't think these are False Turkey Tail (Stereum ostrea), as this type had a fertile surface that is smooth to slightly bumpy. I can't really tell from the photos, but it kinda looks like the fertile surface on the ones seen here feature pores. The pores on Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor) may be very small, and require minor magnifications to observe. Not sure what effect oven-drying may have upon the appearance of Stereus ostrea.

I think the ones in this post represent (a) species of Trametes. Difficult for me to say they are all T. versicolor. Here's another species to consider.

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/trametes_hirsuta.html

[eppe]

Thanks, I checked the post and these don't seem as hairy as the ones shown at that link but the bottoms seem similar. The ones I have here do have lots of tiny pores. The seller's supplier said that the brown color was caused by oven drying. If the oven temp is high enough to brown the undersides would it be killing the medicinal properties as well?

[eppe]

The ones I've collected in the woods have been dried on top our furnace at max heat of 100f. I've noticed no color shift in these.

[Dave W]

I don't know whether heat has any effect upon retention of beneficial chemicals reportedly present in Turkey Tail.

[ladyflyfsh]

The underside of a dried specimen