Oyster mushroom
Pleurotus ostreatus · 平菇
Common侧耳科🍽 Cultivated Edible
A commercially cultivated edible fungus. Buy wild specimens only through reputable, regulated sources.
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
- Cap shell- or fan-shaped, gray-white to grayish brown, with a short lateral stem
- Gills white, running down onto the stem
- Grows in overlapping clusters on dead hardwood trunks and fallen logs
ID notes are compiled by AI from public sources, not reviewed by a mycologist, for learning only — never a basis for foraging.
Basics
- Family
- 侧耳科
- Hymenium
- Gills
- Grows On
- Wood
- How Big
- 5–25 cm (overall size)
- Encounter Rate
- Common
- Habitat
- Dead and fallen hardwood
Easily Confused With
Late oysterCap olive-green to yellow-green, sticky surface
Golden oysterCap bright yellow, fan-shaped, growing in overlapping clusters
Moonlight mushroomOyster mushroom shows no dark blotch when the stem base is cut; moonlight mushroom has a purple-black blotch in the flesh at the stem base.Fun Fact
Oyster mushroom mycelium secretes a toxin that paralyzes tiny roundworms, then digests them — this is a mushroom that actually preys on animals.