Where’s Wildlife · Mushroom Field Guide
Laetiporus
Pronounced (approx.): lay-TIP-or-us
Orange and yellow shelves make this group stand out on woodland trees and logs.
Chicken of the Woods. Select the photo to browse the gallery. Photographs © Where’s Wildlife.
NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES
Fruiting varies with local weather and habitat.
Overlapping shelves or rosettes
Orange to yellow caps, often paler at the edges
Tiny pores underneath, rather than gills
Compare cap shape, color and visible structures in the photographs below.
These photographs support Laetiporus. Record the tree species, pore color and whether the cluster grows at the tree base or higher on the trunk before narrowing the name.
Chicken of the Woods is a group of species. White-pored, ground-level rosettes can suggest L. cincinnatus; yellow-pored shelves on hardwood trunks can suggest L. sulphureus. The gallery remains identified to genus.
Living trees, fallen logs and stumps. Fruiting varies with species and local conditions.
The fungus lives within wood; the visible shelves produce spores. Members of this group cause brown rot.
Pores distinguish these shelves from gilled mushrooms.
Tree identification helps identify the fungus.
Young rounded growth expands into shelves.
Several species occur in North America, with different host trees and distributions.
Explore reported sightings on iNaturalist. Observation records are not a complete range map.
Photographs © Where’s Wildlife.
Identification notes & comments
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