Toxic lookalike
Jack-o'-Lantern
Omphalotus illudens
Also bright orange on hardwood, but it is a cluster of capped mushrooms with stems and sharp orange gills, not shelves with yellow pores.
Chicken of the Woods
Laetiporus sulphureus
Edible
Also called sulphur shelf, chicken mushroom.
Chicken of the woods is a bright orange and yellow shelf fungus that grows in overlapping brackets on oaks and other hardwoods from late spring to fall. It has pores instead of gills.
The tell
Overlapping orange shelves on wood with a bright sulfur-yellow pore surface underneath.
Field marks
What to look at
Cap, underside and stem show in a photo. The spore print does not, and it is often the deciding check.
- Cap
- Fan-shaped to semicircular shelves in overlapping clusters, bright orange to salmon-orange on top, often with a yellow edge, fading to pale tan or whitish with age.
- Underside
- Pore surface sulfur yellow, with tiny pores. No gills.
- Stem
- None; the shelves attach directly to the wood, sometimes from a short shared base.
- Flesh
- Thick, soft and moist when young, pale yellow to whitish; becoming tough and chalky with age. Smell is mild.
- Spore print
- White.
- Size
- Each shelf 2 to 12 inches across (5 to 30 cm); clusters can reach 2 feet (60 cm) or more.
Where and when
Where and when it grows
- Habitat
- Hardwood forests, parks and yards, on standing or fallen trees, especially oaks.
- Grows on
- Living or dead hardwood trees, stumps and logs; it causes a brown heart rot.
- Season
- Late spring to fall, often fruiting on the same tree year after year.
- Range
- Eastern North America east of the Rocky Mountains; western shelves on conifers and eucalyptus belong to other Laetiporus species.
Lookalikes
What the chicken of the woods gets confused with
Each card says how to tell the two apart.
Laetiporus cincinnatus
Photo coming
EdibleWhite-Pored Chicken of the Woods
Laetiporus cincinnatus
Grows as a rosette at the base of oaks, is more pinkish orange on top, and has a white pore surface instead of yellow.
Dyer's polypore (Phaeolus schweinitzii)
Grows on or near conifers, is brownish orange to rusty brown with a yellowish to brown pore surface, and has tough, hairy flesh.
More side-by-side comparisons
Edibility
What the field guides say
Edible
Field guides list chicken of the woods as a choice edible when young and cooked. Guides also record gastrointestinal upset and allergic reactions in a minority of people, especially from raw or undercooked shelves, older specimens, and Laetiporus growing on conifers, eucalyptus or black locust.
This page states what field guides record. It is not advice to eat, taste or handle anything, and a photo cannot settle edibility. If someone has eaten a wild mushroom that may be toxic, call poison control (1-800-222-1222 in the US) right away, before symptoms start: the deadliest species act hours later.
FAQ
Questions about the chicken of the woods
Is chicken of the woods edible?
Field guides list it as a choice edible when young and cooked. A minority of people react with stomach upset or allergic symptoms, and guides record more reactions from older shelves and from Laetiporus growing on conifers, eucalyptus and black locust.
What does chicken of the woods look like?
Clusters of overlapping fan-shaped shelves growing from wood, bright orange on top and sulfur yellow underneath. The underside is covered in tiny pores rather than gills, and there is no real stem. Old shelves fade to pale tan or white.
When does chicken of the woods grow?
From late spring to fall, with flushes after rain in summer and early fall. It often returns to the same tree or stump for several years until the wood is used up.
Sources
Where these facts come from
- Laetiporus sulphureus
MushroomExpert.com
- Laetiporus sulphureus
Fungi Growing on Wood, Gary Emberger (MushroomExpert.com)
- Sulfur-Colored Chicken of the Woods
Missouri Department of Conservation
- Laetiporus sulphureus
Index Fungorum
Also on Mushrooms.id
Related species
Edible
Beefsteak Fungus
Fistulina hepatica
A blood-red, tongue-shaped bracket on oak whose cut flesh looks like raw meat and oozes red juice.
Edible
Lobster Mushroom
Hypomyces lactifluorum
A misshapen mushroom covered in a bright orange-red crust, with the gills reduced to blunt ridges and firm white flesh inside.
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