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Laetiporus sulphureus |
Laetiporus sulphureus, with its strident orange or sulphur yellow colour, is hard to miss. Known as Chicken of the Woods, or Sulphur Polypore, this bracket fungus grows on beech, oak, chestnut and yew. |
Occasionally, specimens of this large and brightly-coloured polypore persist through the winter and continue fruiting the following year. |
| This is an
edible fungus but is best picked when young and moist. A popular way of cooking this fungus is to cut it into
slices, brush them with oil, and then fry them in breadcrumbs; serve with
lemon juice. The taste is quite like chicken.
Although most people find this a good edible species, a
small minority find that it causes feelings of nausea.
If frozen (uncooked), this fungus retains most of its flavour, and so it is a good species for storing for the winter months. |
Description |
The wavy-edged young brackets are soft and
spongy with broad margins, but as they age the margins become thinner and
paler.
Individual brackets range in width from 10 to 40 cm and vary from 3 to 12 cm in thickness. Their colours vary from egg yellow to pale creamy yellow with pink and orange tinged bands. The flesh is yellow-orange when moist, drying out paler. |
Tubes and Pores |
Underneath the brackets there are tiny round or oval tubes - typically 2 or 3 per mm and 15 to 30 mm deep. The pores are white or very pale yellow. |
Spore print |
White. |
Odour/taste |
Smells 'mushroomy'; slightly sour taste. |
Habitat |
On dead or dying hardwood timber, mainly oak, sweet chestnut, beech and yew and occasionally cherry and willow. |
Season |
Summer and autumn. |
Occurrence |
Infrequent. |
Similar species |
|
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