This mushroom does not really look like the Chicken of the Woods very much except that it is similar in the orange color. Mushrooms that Look Like Chicken of the Woods 1) True Chanterelle Mushroom When it is young it’s texture is very pliable while the Velvet Top fungus will be much more tough and brittle.It does not have a brown velvety look texture on the top of it like the Velvet Top fungus.It is a polypore there for it does not have true gills or ridges like the Chanterelle or the Jack O Lantern mushrooms.One of the biggest determining factors to identify the COTW mushroom from the below look alikes is: That’s a whopping 6 months out of the year that you can find it! 3 Chicken of the Woods Look-Alikes Fruiting season is typically in Autumn but can be found during spring (June) all the way to Autumn (December). The mushroom has a vast distribution throughout the United States, North America, Canada, Europe, and some areas in Asia. So, once you find it you can keep returning to get more. You will also tend to see this mushroom growing in the same location year after year. If a hardwood tree has recently fallen then give it a couple years because they like well decomposed trees. They are commonly found growing on standing or fallen oak trees but you can find them growing on just about any type of hardwood tree. Instead, it is a member of the black staining polypore family and it has thousands of tiny (microscopic) pores with a white spore print.ĬOTW mushroom are saprotrophic in nature, so they love to grow at the base of dead or dying hardwood trees and decompose them. Therefor it is better to harvest the young Chicken of the Woods.ĬOTW mushrooms don’t have true gills on the underside like the poisonous Jack O Lantern mushroom. When young the flesh of the cap is soft yet thick with a watery feel but as it matures, the whole cap becomes tough and crumbles easily. When they mature, the brightness fades away. While young, they come in either bright yellow or bright orange while there are some that develop a reddish brown coloration. The texture can range from smooth to finely-wrinkled with a velvety feel. You will also notice that the cap is a little wavy in appearance. This means they have a fan-shaped to almost semi circular shape. Chicken of the Woods Mushroom IdentificationĬhicken of the Woods (COTW) are part of bracket fungi. We will go over the 3 mushrooms that resemble this mushroom the closest but you will soon see how easy it is to distinguish it from those. Not only that but another cool thing about this mushroom is they don’t really have any look alikes that are that similar. It is a mushroom that you don’t want to eat raw though because it has been shown to cause gastric distress when not cooked before eating. This is due to it being a bright yellow and orange color that is notable form far away. The Chicken of the Woods mushroom is a great mushroom for beginner or novice mushroom hunters because it is a very easy mushroom to spot. It is popular as the Chicken of the Woods mushroom, Chicken mushroom, Chicken fungus and Sulphur Shelf mushroom. While they all differ a little in the trees they like to grow on and the way they look, in general, they look very similar when identifying Chicken of the Woods. How to Identify Chicken of the Woods Mushroom? The Chicken of the Woods identification characteristics make it easy to identify and distinguish from it’s poisonous look alike.Ĭhicken of the woods mushroom is a member of the laetiporus genus and 3 most common wild edible species are:
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