Chicken Of The Woods White – Laetiporus Cincinnatus Gourmet Mushroom

White-Pored Chicken of the Woods is an uncommon or rare, large, fleshy, bracket (shelf-like) fungus. It appears from July through October on the ground at the base of a hardwood tree, almost always an oak. It is both saprobic and parasitic. It invades the roots of live or dead trees causing brown rot.

It is found on the ground at the base of standing, living or dead oaks, rarely on other hardwoods, never on conifers. It sometimes appears on the ground at some distance from a tree but is actually growing on burried tree roots. It usually forms a rosette of several to many overlapping caps, sometimes appears singly, rarely appears as a series of shelves at the base of a tree.

The fruiting body is annual. There is no stem. When it first appears in late summer or fall it is knob-like, but it soon becomes shelf-like. It consists of an overlapping rosette of several to many brackets. The rosette can be up to 24″ wide but is usually 18″ wide or less.

Each bracket is fan-shaped to semicircular in outline, sometimes irregularly lobed, more or less flat, 2″ to 6″ wide, and up to 8″ deep. The surface is smooth to suede-like and radially wrinkled. On younger brackets the upper side is bright reddish orange to bright orange, yellowish-orange, or salmon. There are often concentric bands of contrasting colors. It fades in sunlight or with age to yellowish or buff. Older brackets are whitish. The margin on younger brackets is thick, blunt, and pale.

The flesh of young brackets is thick, soft, watery, and white. As it ages the flesh becomes tough then crumbly.

The pore tubes on the underside of the bracket are yellow and up to 3 ⁄16″ deep. There are 2 to 4 pores per millimeter. The spores are white.

All parts of the bracket are edible when cooked.