Nature · Fungi

Chicken of the woods

Fruits May–October · brackets to 40 cm

Laetiporus sulphureus — Fomitopsidaceae (a fungus, not a plant)

Chicken of the woods is the sulphur-yellow bracket fungus that erupts in overlapping tiers from the trunks of old oaks and sweet chestnuts. It is a fungus, not a plant: the bracket is only the fruiting body of a mycelium eating the heartwood of the living tree from inside, causing a brown cube rot. It is one of the easiest fungi to name at sight, and one of the few large bracket fungi that is eaten — though it disagrees with a minority of people, and material from yew or conifer should be left alone.

How to spot them

▸Overlapping fan-shaped brackets in tiers, sulphur-yellow at the edge and orange across the top
▸No gills: a lemon-yellow surface of fine pores underneath
▸Soft, damp and suede-like when young; chalky, pale and crumbly when old
▸On the trunks of living or recently dead oak, sweet chestnut, willow, cherry and yew
▸Appears from late spring, earlier than most conspicuous British fungi

How to know it

Overlapping tiers of soft sulphur-yellow and orange fans burst straight out of an old oak trunk

Chicken of the woods.

It has no gills at all — the underside is a sheet of fine lemon-yellow pores

Chicken of the woods, a bracket or polypore.

It eats the heartwood of a living tree from inside, leaving a brown rot that cracks into cubes

Chicken of the woods — a brown-rot fungus that breaks down cellulose and leaves the lignin.

Its texture and flavour when cooked gave it a poultry nickname on both sides of the Atlantic

Chicken of the woods.

Its Latin epithet refers to the colour of brimstone

Laetiporus sulphureus; Laetiporus means 'with bright pores'.

Foragers are told to avoid it when it grows on yew, eucalyptus or conifers, and to try only a little at first

Chicken of the woods — a minority of people react badly to it however it is cooked.

Quick-fire facts

•A fungus, not a plant: fungi are their own kingdom, with no chlorophyll and cell walls of chitin
•A polypore — spores are released from tubes opening as fine pores, not from gills
•Causes a brown cube rot of heartwood, digesting cellulose and leaving the brown lignin behind; the tree may stand for years
•Commonest on oak, also sweet chestnut, willow, cherry, beech and yew
•Laetiporus means 'with bright pores'; sulphureus means the colour of brimstone
•Edible and widely eaten when young and soft, but it causes nausea in a minority of people regardless of cooking
•Fruiting bodies growing on yew, eucalyptus or conifers are generally advised against
•One of the earliest large fungi of the British year, appearing from May
•That an easily identified, widely eaten fungus is still dangerous for some people is a reminder that edibility is never a simple rule

Drill it — 7 cards

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Sources

Woodland Trust — Chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus)