eat-bolete Posted January 3, 2015 Report Posted January 3, 2015 Is this hen of the woods? If not, what can it possibly be? Is it edible? Past prime of still good? P.S. I apologize but I don't know why every photo I attach is rotated. The preview thumbnail looks good but attaches rotated.
eat-bolete Posted January 3, 2015 Author Report Posted January 3, 2015 After it thawed out, I tried to test it for blackening of spires to rule out Meripilus Giganteus. Even though results are not immediate, I do see some blackening of spores in general, I now believe that it indeed is M. Giganteus. What are your thoughts?
eat-bolete Posted January 3, 2015 Author Report Posted January 3, 2015 I tasted the youngest specimen, it is not acidic, but very tough.
Dave W Posted January 3, 2015 Report Posted January 3, 2015 Meripilus giganteus (currently M. sumstinei) tends to form fronds that emanate from a central stalk, or are at least closely arranged. The ones seen above appear to be fairly spread out along the log. But I still think Meripilus is a possibility. Definitely not Hen (Grifola frondosa), which always occurs in large clusters of thinner fronds. Once a mushroom has frozen and then thawed, some of the physical characters may be altered. Another possibility is Abortiporus biennis, a mushroom which varies considerably in shape. I had also thought maybe Ischoderma resinosum. But the pores seem to be too large for this species. It's the pores of M. sunstinei that blacken, not the spores.
eat-bolete Posted January 3, 2015 Author Report Posted January 3, 2015 Dave, thanks for correction, I meant pores of course. I. Resinosum should have darker colored cap it seems, based on the photos I found and not such wavy edges, or can the colors be also affected by freezing? Abortiporus biennis sounds like a great suggestion, I'll do some more research on that, thank you.
Dave W Posted January 4, 2015 Report Posted January 4, 2015 I agree about the pale cap color pointing away from Ischnoderma. Meripilus seems like the best idea here, but I don't have a lot of confidence in this proposal.
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