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January 10, 2006 : Laetiporus sulphureus
Keywords: Polyporaceae | Laetiporus sulphureus (Fr.) Murr. | Minnesota
Today's image is courtesy of Angie from St. Paul, Minnesota (Angie in MN@Flickr | BPotD Flickr Group Pool | original image), who previously submitted Omphalotus illudens. Thanks again, Angie!
This organism has a number of common names: sulfur shelf, sulfur polypore, chicken of the woods and, by a handful of people, tree brain (though this common name is more often associated with Peniophora rufa).
The name Laetiporus sulphureus was previously applied to a wide-ranging North American species that grew on a variety of substrates. Upon further examination, however, fungal taxonomists have split up the old Laetiporus sulphureus into a number of separate species. The current Laetiporus sulphureus, pictured here, is native to eastern North America and grows on (in) hardwoods. To give an example of one species that has been split off, Laetiporus conifericola is native to western North America and grows on conifers. Tom Volk tells the story in his page on Laetiporus cincinnatus. He also discusses the common name “chicken of the woods”, which apparently is how it tastes when cooked properly, though I haven't tried it.
Photography resource link: Macro Art in Nature is a macro photography weblog by Michael Brown of South Carolina. His abstracts are worth your time to investigate. Michael posted a couple comments to BPotD yesterday, which was a bit of a coincidence – without any correspondence between us, I had planned to suggest his site as today's resource link.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at January 10, 2006 4:31 AM
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Comments
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin 
at January 10, 2006 4:37 AM
How large do those clusters grow? Do they fan out from a central growth, or sprout from separate areas to form a huge cluster?
Posted by: Tori at January 10, 2006 10:15 AM
Just saute' them up in a little soy sayce.
Posted by: emily at January 10, 2006 11:58 AM
Neat shot Angie of a very interesting subject!
Sort of reminds me of my wife's scrambled eggs! :)
Posted by: Michael Brown at January 10, 2006 8:43 PM
These can grow to enormous size. If you do a google search on "56 pound mushroom" you'll come up with many links to a news story from October when a man in Missouri found what is believed to be the North American record.
As far as how they grow, I'm not an expert, but I think the answer is both--some I've seen appear to fan out from a central point, but also often have several points of origination from the stump, sometimes, but not always, merging together. This particular one, as far as I could tell without removing it, appeared to come from one point.
Posted by: angie at January 11, 2006 7:47 AM
I live in southwestern Washington State and have collected and eaten the "chicken of the woods" mushroom for many years. It's one of the best and very easy for the novice collector to identify.
I've always known its' botanical name to be Polyporus sulfureus; has the name been changed recently?
Roger.
Posted by: Roger Anderson at January 16, 2006 11:48 AM
Hello Roger - yes, have a read through the link to Tom Volk's site. He goes into detail about the name changes in Polyporus.
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin at January 16, 2006 11:59 AM
omg fungi is amazing
Posted by: Cassandra at May 19, 2006 8:13 AM
I have a picture of a fungus that looks just like the brain fungus in Angie's pic, but it doesn't have those red scabby pits in it. Also yesterday some of the "folds" were full of what appeared to be sap. Is it the same thing? I'd be happy to e-mail the pics from both days.
Michelle
Posted by: Michelle at September 13, 2006 9:20 PM
It quite possibly is the same thing. The sap you see may be from the tree itself.
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin at September 14, 2006 1:30 PM
Look up "Peck's Hydnum" or "Hydnellum peckii" which though not poisonous is considered inedible because of its very peppery taste and toughness. It can have red drops on it that look like sap.
Posted by: KP at October 5, 2006 1:19 PM
Please share your comments about the photograph(s) and accompanying write-up. Telling a story about the subject of the photograph(s) is also much appreciated! If you have a gardening question, the best place to ask is on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums. Thank you!
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