A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
laetiporus sulphureus ( fam. laetiporaceae)
The cap is small and knob shaped, overlapping in an irregular pattern. Wide, shaped like a fan, and directly attached to the trunk of a tree, it has a shelf-like appearance and is sulfur-yellow to bright orange in colour and a suedelike texture. When it is old, the cap fades to tan or white. The shelves often grow in overlapping clumps, and each one may be anywhere from 5 to 60 cm (2 to 24 in) in diameter and 4 cm (1.4 in) thick. The fertile surface is sulfur-yellow with small pores or tubes and has a white spore print
Laetiporus sulphureus is widely distributed across Europe and North America, although may be restricted to east of the Rockies. The mushroom grows on dead or mature hardwoods such as oak, cherry, or beech from August through October or later, sometime as early as June. The species can also be found under conifers. It can usually be found growing in clusters. ---Parasitism The mushroom causes brown cubical rot on of the heartwood in the roots, base, and stem. At first, the wood is discolored yellowish to red. Later on, it becomes reddish-brown and brittle. At the last stage, the wood can be rubbed like powder between someone's fingers. -- Guinness world record A specimen weighing 100 pounds was found in the New Forest, Hampshire, United Kingdom on October 15, 1990
SULFUR SHELF MUSHROOMS GROWING ON CERTAIN TREES AND IN CERTAIN AREAS WERE MORE LIKELY TO CAUSE ALLERGIC REACTIONS THAN OTHERS : ---- Edibility and Taxonomy of the Sulfur Shelf: When I was growing up, the Sulfur Shelf was known as Polyporus sulphureus and was universally considered safe and edible. Most field guides published in the last half of the twentieth century in fact rank it as ‘choice”. The authors were following the lead of Clyde Christiansen, University of Wisconsin mycologist, who popularized it (along with the Morel, Giant Puffball, and Shaggy Mane) as one of his “Foolproof Four”: Beginners couldn’t mistake these for any other mushroom, there were no toxic look alikes, they were widely collected and eaten, sold at farmers markets across the country and unless you had an allergy to them, you wouldn’t get sick if the mushroom was well cooked.. This was pretty much the accepted wisdom well into the 1980′s. By this time, however, a number of cases had presented themselves where “allergic reactions” occurred, and a pattern seemed to appear indicating that Sulfur Shelf mushrooms growing on certain trees and in certain areas were more likely to cause allergic reactions and gastric distress than others. Eucalyptus, Evergreens, and Locust in particular were suspect and the advice began to be published to avoid eating mushrooms collected from these trees. By this time also the Sulfur Shelf had been transferred out of Polyporus into a new segregate genus, Laetiporus, based in part upon wood rotting characteristics (see below). During the 1990′s the use of new genetic and mating techniques led to the discovery that the single species Laetiporus (Polyporus) sulphureus could be segregated into five or six separate species. For more, see here and here. As it turns out, those Sulfur Shelfs living on eucalyptus and evergreen are genetically distinct from L. sulphureus, even though they are morphologically identical, and what was once thought to be a single safe species turned into a complex of species, some of which apparently could be quite troublesome ( http://leslieland.com/2009/09/hunting-la... )
3 Comments
i have id him propperly, and also took your info into the id,
thanks john15. that was a fact i doesn't knew. Same as the link, very interesting, will i try, because till now i was very carefully/but intrested with/in the "chicken of the woods"
Looks like a sulphur Polypore on a Pine. If it is on a conifer it could make 1 in 25 people sick or cause stomach distress. If it grows on an Oak then much less chance of any problem.
http://leslieland.com/2009/09/hunting-la...
(See paragraph 2 under picture)