Added on 31/12/2011Fungi

Laetiporus sulphureus


Common Name(s): Chicken of the Woods



Laetiporus sulphureus appears on deciduous and coniferous trees in with Oak, Willow, Apple and Yew being some of its favourites. It is very common, with its brackets appearing every year in late Spring to Early Summer. It obtained its common name from the fact that its flesh has the constituency of cooked chicken flesh and when young is very good to eat (don't attempt to eat them when they are older, are becoming crumbly and beginning to whiten). In Germany it is considered a delicacy. The flesh is cream, egg yellow in colour and although it can grow into strange lumpy shapes, it usually grows in tiered clusters as a fan shaped bracket. A yellowish juice should exude when the flesh is squeezed.

Picture by James Davies. Taken on Yew in early June 2008.






Pictures by Mark Tansley of Sparsholt College, Winchester, UK.







Picture by Chris Skellern


This photograph was taken in May at a local plant nursery. The fungi is growing on a Yew tree and has grown through the plastic netting.




Picture by Chris Skellern.


This photograph was taken at a London hotel site in May, the fungi is active within a large trunk wound made when a major branch broke away in a storm and took a section of the trunk with it! The tree is an Oak and is located well away from public areas so will hopefully be left to decay in peace.











Please Note: Many Fungi are toxic and individual reactions to them vary widely. Do not touch or eat fungi unless you have accurately identified them. The AIE can not accept any legal responsibility or liability for errors in identification or for individual reactions to the consumption of fungi.