Chicken of the woods
Laetiporus sulphureus · 硫磺菌
Common拟层孔菌科🔥 Edible With Preparation
Sources report it requires expert processing before it can be eaten; cases of poisoning from improper handling have been recorded.
The same species can be described differently across regions and stages of maturity, and countless look-alike species cannot be told apart by eye. Never use the information on this page to judge whether a real mushroom is safe to eat.
How to Tell
- Bright orange-yellow, fan-shaped in overlapping tiers, colored like egg yolk
- Underside sulphur-yellow with fine pores
- Grows on hardwood trunks, sometimes forming a large mass
ID notes are compiled by AI from public sources, not reviewed by a mycologist, for learning only — never a basis for foraging.
Basics
- Family
- 拟层孔菌科
- Hymenium
- Pores
- Grows On
- Wood
- How Big
- 10–40 cm (overall size)
- Encounter Rate
- Common
- Habitat
- Living trees and dead trunks of oak, willow and others
Fun Fact
Named for its chicken-breast-like texture, but a good number of people get gastrointestinal reactions after eating it, and specimens growing on trees like yew call for particular caution.