Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) is impossible to miss: a stack of bright yellow and orange brackets bursting from a tree trunk, sometimes spanning half a metre. There are no gills; the pale yellow undersides are covered in tiny pores.
It is a wood-rotting fungus that causes a brown cubical rot in living and dead trees, especially oak, cherry, willow and yew, and it fruits from late spring into autumn, earlier than most large fungi. Young brackets are soft and moist with a rounded, lumpy edge; with age they fade to pale buff and become dry and crumbly.
It is a well-known edible, but not a safe one for everyone: some people react badly even to well-cooked specimens, and brackets growing on yew are widely avoided because yew itself is highly poisonous. The Giant Polypore (Meripilus giganteus), which grows at the base of beech trees, is brown and bruises black. The English name refers to its texture, said to resemble chicken when cooked.
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Distribution
Widespread and rather common
Habitat
Prefers old wood with a preference for Quercus, Prunus, Salix and Taxus but also other deciduous trees
Etymology
Laetiporus is Latin for 'bright pores', from laetus, 'bright' or 'cheerful', and porus, 'pore'. sulphureus means 'sulphur-coloured'.
Associates
Prunus, Quercus, Salix, Taxus
Fruiting Body
Tiers of overlapping, fan-shaped brackets with no stem; soft and moist when young, pale and crumbly with age.
| Cycle | Annual |
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| Colour | |
| Shape | Overlapping brackets |
| Width | 10 - 50 cm |
Pores
Tiny, round, pale yellow pores that do not change colour when bruised.
| Colour | |
|---|---|
| Shape | Round, Angular |
Tubes
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Flesh
Soft, moist and yellowish when young, becoming chalky, dry and brittle with age.
| Colour | |
|---|---|
| Odour | Pleasant |
| Taste | Mild |
Spores
| Colour | |
|---|---|
| Shape | Subglobose |
| Ornamentation | Smooth |
| Size | 5-6.5 x 3.5-4.5 μm |
Classification
- ↳ Phylum: Basidiomycota
- ↳ Subphylum: Agaricomycotina
- ↳ Class: Agaricomycetes
- ↳ Order: Polyporales
- ↳ Family: Laetiporaceae
- ↳ Genus: Laetiporus
Synonyms
- Boletus caudicinus Scop. ex Pollini
- Boletus citrinus J.J. Planer
- Boletus coriaceus Huds. non Bull. (1780)
- Boletus ramosus Bull.
- Boletus ramosus Bull. ex Merat
- Boletus sulphureus Bull.
- Calvatia versispora Lloyd
- Cerinomyces aurantiacus Pat.
- Ceriomyces aurantiacus (Pat.) Sacc.
- Cladoporus fulvus Chev.
- Grifola sulphurea (Bull.) Pilát
- Laetiporus sulphureus (Bull. ex Fr.) Murrill
- Laetiporus sulphureus (Bull.) Bondartsev & Singer
- Laetiporus sulphureus f. imbricatus Domański
- Polyporus casearius Fr.
- Polyporus ceratoniae Risso ex Barla
- Polyporus ramosus (Bull.) Gray
- Polyporus rostafinskii Blonski
- Polyporus sulphureus (Bull.) Fr.
- Polyporus sulphureus var. albolabyrinthiporus Rea
- Polyporus todari Inz.
- Ptychogaster aurantiacus Pat.
- Sistotrema sulphureum (Bull.) Rebent.
- Sporotrichum versisporum (Lloyd) Stalpers
- Stereum speciosum Fr. in Inz.
Reference Sources
T. Læssøe, J. H. Peterson (2019) Fungi of Temperate Europe Vol. 2. Princeton University Press.
G. Kibby (2020) Mushrooms and Toadstools of Britain & Europe Vol. 1. Geoffrey Kibby.
Genus Laetiporus
No other species found in this genus.
