Chicken of the woods identification (Laetiporus sulphureus): brackets, pores, host trees

How to identify chicken of the woods

Chicken of the woods, also called sulphur shelf or sulphur polypore, is a bracket fungus: thick, fleshy, fan-shaped shelves growing in overlapping tiers straight out of a trunk, stump or large fallen branch, with no stem. The upper surface is bright orange to orange-yellow, often in bands, with a sulphur-yellow margin; the underside is a layer of tiny yellow pores, not gills. Young brackets are soft, moist and crumbly; old ones go pale, chalky and tough.

In the UK and Europe the name covers Laetiporus sulphureus. In North America MushroomExpert.com notes that the name has been used for several species: L. cincinnatus has a white pore surface and grows in rosettes at the base of trees, and L. huroniensis grows on conifers in the east, while western North America has its own species. The identification below is for the orange-and-yellow bracket on hardwoods, which is the one all three edibility sources describe.

Confirm these features

• The underside is a smooth-looking layer of tiny pores, yellow or whitish. Any gills, and it is not chicken of the woods.
• There is no stem. The brackets grow sideways from the wood in overlapping shelves or a rosette.
• The upper surface is orange to sulphur yellow, often in bands, with a yellow margin; faded white brackets are old.
• It grows on wood: a trunk, a stump, a fallen log or a large root. Note which tree, and in Britain avoid yew.
• Young flesh is soft and moist and tears like cooked chicken; tough, chalky or crumbling flesh is past eating.
• The spore print is white.

Dangerous look-alikes

Jack-o'-lantern (Omphalotus illudens / O. olearius)

Tell apart: The jack-o'-lantern is also bright orange and also grows in dense clusters on oak stumps and buried roots in late summer and autumn, but each mushroom has a stem and a cap with thin, sharp gills running down it (Missouri Department of Conservation). Chicken of the woods has no stem and no gills. A cluster seen from above can fool you; turn one over. Full comparison: chicken of the woods vs jack-o'-lantern.

Risk: Poisonous. Nausea, vomiting and cramps starting one to three hours after eating. See the jack-o'-lantern page.

Giant polypore / black-staining polypore (Meripilus giganteus in Europe, M. sumstinei in North America)

Tell apart: The Woodland Trust names the giant polypore as the very similar species, but brown rather than orange. First Nature adds that pale chicken of the woods could be confused with it, and that the giant polypore's pores "turn black when bruised", which chicken of the woods never does. It grows in rosettes at the base of beech and other trees.

Risk: First Nature reports stomach upsets in some people and advises avoiding it. Both species are polypores on hardwoods, so an old, faded chicken of the woods and a young giant polypore can look alike until you bruise the pores. See the hen of the woods page for the black-staining polypore in detail.

Honey fungus (Armillaria species)

Tell apart: Honey fungus is a tan to honey-coloured gilled mushroom with a stem and usually a ring, growing in tufts at the base of trees and stumps. Gills and stems rule out chicken of the woods.

Risk: Honey fungus itself needs thorough cooking and is confused with the deadly galerina on wood; the point here is that a gilled tuft on a stump is a different identification. See the honey fungus page.

Where and when it grows

Chicken of the woods is a heart-rot fungus of hardwoods. Its mycelium hollows out the heartwood of a living tree while the sapwood stays alive (Woodland Trust), so the brackets often burst out of a standing trunk, sometimes well above head height (MushroomExpert.com), as well as on stumps and fallen trunks. Oak is the main host everywhere. First Nature lists sweet chestnut and beech next, with cherry and willow occasional; the Woodland Trust adds yew, wild cherry, sweet chestnut and willow for Britain. On the eastern side of North America it is a common late-summer and autumn fungus; MushroomExpert.com describes a season of summer and fall, rarely winter and spring, and the Missouri Department of Conservation gives May through November. In Britain the Woodland Trust gives late spring to autumn, and First Nature notes brackets can persist through winter and fruit again the next year on the same tree.

Before you eat any

All three edibility sources rate it edible, and each attaches conditions. The Missouri Department of Conservation calls it a choice edible and says: "cook it well", "only eat a small amount the first time you try it", and "be absolutely sure of your identification". It also reports that "some people get a bit of stomach upset or swollen lips after eating them". First Nature says most people find it fine but "a small minority find that it causes feelings of nausea", and recommends picking it young and moist. The Woodland Trust says it "does not agree with everyone", with dizziness and stomach upset reported.

On host trees, the British sources agree on yew. The Woodland Trust: "The best advice is to avoid foraging chicken of the woods from yew trees, just in case", because the fungus may take up toxic alkaloids from the tree, and hidden yew needles or bark in the folds can be toxic even in small amounts. First Nature rates it "generally ... a good edible fungus" except when "growing on wood such as Yew", since yew "contains dangerous toxins that could be taken up by the fungus". The two US sources do not mention host-tree warnings. Claims about eucalyptus and conifer hosts in western North America appear in hobbyist pages, not in the sources listed here, so this page makes no statement about them beyond: if you do not know the tree, you do not know enough.

Pick only the soft outer edges of young brackets and leave the rest on the tree (Missouri Department of Conservation). Confirm your first find with a local expert; a bracket fungus with pores is easy to narrow down but, as the reactions above show, "edible" is a statement about the species, not about you.

Using an app to check a find

A photo of the top of a bracket shows the colour and the shelving, which separates it from most things except a jack-o'-lantern cluster seen from above. A photo of the underside shows pores instead of gills, which settles that question. A photo cannot show the host tree when the bracket is on a fallen trunk, cannot bruise the pores to rule out a giant polypore and cannot tell soft young flesh from chalky old flesh. Mycoscout asks for the cap, the underside, the stem area and the habitat, leads with the edibility verdict, shows its confidence and names the jack-o'-lantern with how to tell them apart. It is a field companion, not a clearance to eat: confirm your find with a local expert, and cook it well.

Frequently asked questions