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Hen question


joshroom

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This may seem like a dumb question. Do hen of the woods ever actually grow in the woods? I have checked hundreds if not thousands of oaks in woods over the last couple falls and dont have 1 hen to show for it. But I have found quite a few in lawns without putting any time into it. Just saw them from the car. Any thoughts?

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I have never seen one so I just checked my local 'mushroom club's database, no record of hens collected by them either...

The only hardwood I would find around here would be in someones yard, perhaps I should start staking out the neighborhood?

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That isnt such a far fetched plan Brook. My brother says there is a big honkin hen under a tree on a nearby urban nursing home lawn. He says picking it just doesnt feel right. DaveW will tell you that Boletus edulis has a strong relationship to university lawns and of course a front lawn is the very best place to find shaggy mane.

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Yeah, my best Boletus edulis finds occur under Norway Spruce on lawns. Hen of the Woods is another that sometimes occurs nearby trees, stumps, or buried roots --usually large oaks-- on lawns. I once saw a few hundred pounds growing nearby old oaks on a city park lawn. I also get Blewits on lawns. Usually the ones on lawns are some of the later-occurring Blewits, which means mid to late October around here.

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This may seem like a dumb question. Do hen of the woods ever actually grow in the woods? I have checked hundreds if not thousands of oaks in woods over the last couple falls and dont have 1 hen to show for it. But I have found quite a few in lawns without putting any time into it. Just saw them from the car. Any thoughts?

Experience of a great hen hunter here who I know is that they prefer red or black oaks to white -- check mostly those with darker bark, and you should do better. I DID find at least one on a white oak, so it's not an absolute, but most I've found are also on the darker-barked oaks.

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Experience of a great hen hunter here who I know is that they prefer red or black oaks to white -- check mostly those with darker bark, and you should do better. I DID find at least one on a white oak, so it's not an absolute, but most I've found are also on the darker-barked oaks.

huh, we only have burr oaks (very close to white mushroomwise) and red oak. I have found all mine on burr oaks except one I found on a non native oak in someones yard. I assume it was a black oak
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Hello all,

I've always liked wild mushrooms just for their colors and what-not. Never tried picking or eating them before. Yesterday got my curciousity going when I found the ones linked.

Is this a Hen of the Woods? I hope so because I ate some of it already.

Found 6 of them growing around an old oak stump in Maryland.

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Also on the same hike I found what I believe to be honey mushrooms. I did NOT pick them.

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This next one I'm not too sure about. They were growing in a cluster. There were some older ones that had decayed to a dark brown.

Are they larger honeys? I don't see a ring on the stalk.

I thought they might be Clitocybe rivulosa thu they are NOT cupped. Since I wasn't sure, I didn't keep them.

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Hey all, just wanted to add something to the Hen discussion that might help those of you (like myself) who aren't usually up to their necks in Hens. I just found 16-20 lbs of Hens this past Sunday, all around MAPLE stumps!!! I've always looked around Oak trees and stumps and been only mildly successful. I would not have thought to check Maple trees, but literally stumbled upon a honey hole of Hens (say that three times fast) in a Maple grove. I'm sure you all that have to beat them off with a big stick already knew this tid-bit, but I am just thrilled to have found it out for myself and hope it helps others who are Hen-impaired.

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Would you mind shedding a little more light on maple stumps? By stump, do you mean a cut of tree? A dead tree that rotted away? Or simply the base of a living tree? Also in forest or lawn?

Two of the Maple trees were alive and thriving (so not stumps), while four were dead and rotted down to about 16"-24" of stump. All were flat-ish on top, so they were likely cut down years ago. I'm 99 percent positive that the rotted stumps were maples, as two had suckers coming out of their bases (so, "mostly dead" or at least stunned like a blue parrot). The other two were literally ringed by little maple saplings.

I know that they were not water maples, and it is highly unlikely that they were sugar maples as they are rare to the point of non-existent around here. They were all located in the forest, although one was on the edge next to a small service road and it was flanked on one side by a grass verge.

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