1Polypores
Pores of a polypore
Origin: Greek/Latin meaning “many pores”
Polypore mushrooms are typically the first mushrooms you see in a forest, and you see them everywhere growing on trees, twigs, stumps, and roots. They are visible year-round so it is logical to start with this prolific and very visible family.
Polypores produce and distribute spores from tubes through pores. They are the most conspicuous mushrooms in Washington, seen year-round. A few are edible and others may be prepared as health-protecting teas, drinks, and soups. They are parasitic or saprophytic or both, and are typically shelf or hoof-shaped mushrooms (but not always). Find them clinging to trees across the continent. Here are some of the most important edible and/or medicinal polypore mushrooms found in Washington, especially in rare old-growth forests. Because these mushrooms may be inedible due to their hardness, there is a Health Prep section describing the various ways to prepare mushrooms to release their health-protecting chemistry in Jim Meuninck’s Basic Illustrated Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms.
Artist’s Conk
Chicken of the Woods
Turkey Tail
Resinous Polypore
Reishi
Agarikon
Cauliflower Fungus
Artist’s conk, Hoh Rain Forest
Ganodermataceae (Ganoderma applanatum [Pers.] Pat.)
Origin: Gano is Latin for “shiny,” derma is Greek for “skin,” thus “shiny skin.”
Season: Year-round; growth period in summer and fall
Identification: The artist’s conk, a wood decay (saprophytic) fungus and a live sapwood pathogen (parasitic), gets its name from its white art-board-like underside. It is a woody, hard shelf mushroom, more or less flattened, with a gray to dark gray or brown top—most often brownish in the spore-producing season—the covering powder is brown spores. This shelf mushroom expands in concentric bands with a white undersurface. Old specimens can grow to 35" in circumference and 1"–8" thick.
Spores: Spores are elliptical, blunt, spore print brown; a single large artist’s conk can produce 4 trillion spores annually.
Habitat: The artist’s conk is an abundant brown rot mushroom in Washington growing on coniferous and deciduous trees that are standing or fallen—dead or dying trees and stumps. The mushroom attacks and decays wood, forming large shelves of fruiting bodies. Find it on western hemlock, Douglas fir, and spruce. It grows in every temperate and many subtropical forest ecosystems from North America to Africa and Asia.
Look-alikes: Fomitopsis pinicola bands of this species are more often orange or reddish orange, with an outer white band edge (white lipped). But this species can be grayish and dark like the artist’s conk.
Inedible: Not edible, medicinal; used in traditional medicine in decoction and infusion. Aqueous extracts have antioxidant, immune-modulating, tumor-reducing chemistry. Research is ongoing.
Storage: Keep dry in sealed container.
Comments: Native Americans used the mushroom in spiritual cleansing rituals. In traditional Chinese medicine, conk extracts are used to treat lung and respiratory problems and taken as an immune-system modulator and diuretic. Artist’s conk extracts are antimicrobial against E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus. It is antitumor in vitro. Decoctions are still used in several countries to treat lung and respiratory problems. Extracts have liver antitumor properties (Jeong, 2008). Artists, skilled and otherwise, use these shelf mushrooms as an expressive canvas. The white belly of the conk turns brown as it is etched by a stylus, stick, or fingernail. When burned at a campsite, it repels several varieties of insects, but I find blood root juice better for mosquitoes (Meuninck, 2013). A large artist’s conk may release 30 billion brown spores per day, coloring the topside of the mushroom tan.
Recipe: Medicinal tinctures and decoctions may be made from artist’s conk. Cut away the outer (present-year) growth band from the mushroom. Chop into small pieces, then try a small amount (tablespoon) in a decoction of 6 ounces of water, and simmer for 10 minutes. Or chip conk finely, place bits in a coffee filter, and pour alcohol (5 tablespoons of conk with 25% alcohol, 4-ounce pour-through) over the filtered mushroom. Capture this percolation with 5 or 6 pour-throughs. This is a mild percolation of artist’s conk. Taste a small amount of the percolation or, if preferred, the decoction to see how you like it and if it likes you (for more on producing natural extractions see Jim Meuninck’s Medicinal Plants of North America (FalconGuides, 2016).
Conk notepaper
L. conifericola in old growth
Polyporaceae (Laetiporus gilbertsonii, L. conifericola, L. sulphureus bull. ex fr.)
Origin: Polyporus is Latin for “many pores.” Laeti is Latin for “happy, joyful,” thus “joyful pores.”
Season: Late summer and fall months into Dec in Washington
Identification: There are at least 12 species of Laetiporus. In general, their flesh is soft when young, especially the margins, no stem, shelflike and fan shaped; color is lemon yellow to orangish. Laetiporus gilbertsonii, L. conifericola, L. sulphureus are parasites and/or saprophytes (brown rot) on different substrates. These 3 species have lemon- to orange-yellow top surfaces, lighter underneath. Rarely found singly but more often grouped in overlapping stemless caps. They grow to 20" or more wide on trees (I have seen one cover intermittently a 20-foot log). Shape is typically semicircular, a thick fanlike shape with margins softly rounded and undulating. Surface is radially furrowed and smooth or feltlike to the touch. Pored tubes shelter and hold spores, hence the name polypore. Pores typically yellow, and when fresh a slight squeeze will exude yellow juice. Smell is pungent, mushroomy. Mushroom color darkens with age and then fades and crumbles to white and black waste.
Spores: Spores are ovoid to elliptical, cream, white, or yellow in color.
Habitat: L. conifericola is found in the western Rockies to Washington. L. sulphureus is found east of the Rockies. L. conifericola is separated from the other species by its preference for conifers, especially larch (Pinaceae). L gilbertsonii is coastal and found in conjunction with hardwoods (eucalyptus), and L. sulphureus on beech and oak.
Look-alikes: All 3 species look similar, and there are at least 9 more varieties not covered here.
Edible: Choice and versatile. A meaty mushroom with a fleeting lemon flavor (slightly sour). It is best when young and tender; older mushrooms are more sour. It’s a chewy, juicy mushroom that requires cleaning. If extremely dirty, pull apart segments (layers) and brush. Blanching removes any bitter taste. Texture and flavor when cooked is like chicken. Slice thin, sauté in olive oil, and eat as an entree or add to stews, soups, pizzas, and omelets. Ideal for vegetarians; goes well in risotto, curry, and various homemade salsas.
Caution: A few people have become ill eating Laetiporus gilbertsonii, exhibiting nausea and vomiting. Likewise, the western larch–loving variety Laetiporus conifericola may cause similar symptoms and tends to be a bit sour tasting. Always cook these mushrooms (see Cornell, 2006).
RECIPE
Faux Chicken
Ingredients (serves 2–3)
2 cups chicken of the woods, wiped clean with a damp cloth, then chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups tomato sauce
½ cup dry white wine
½ tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Sauté diced garlic in olive oil over medium heat, cook for 1 minute, then add mushrooms and cook for 8 to 10 minutes on medium heat, stirring occasionally. Pour in the white wine, soy, and balsamic, add the tomato sauce, and cook for another 5 minutes.
This dish may be used as a stand-alone appetizer or a sauce. If used as a spaghetti sauce, during the last 5 minutes of cooking add ¼ teaspoon fennel seed, ¼ teaspoon dried oregano, and 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil.
See more at www.mushroom-appreciation.com/chicken-of-the-woods.html#sthash.6QhRJIGs.dpuf
Coastal dweller L. gilbertsonii
Medicinal: These mushrooms are antioxidant and antimicrobial; phenols inherent are anti-oxidants. They have potential as a natural antioxidant. The crude extract exhibited high anti-candida activity against Candida albicans, opening the possibility as a suitable antimicrobial and antioxidant agent in the food industry (Turkoglu, 2007). L. sulphureus showed activity against human T4 leukemic cancer cells and activity against Plasmodium falciparum (malaria microorganism), demonstrating possible antitumor and antimalarial activity (Lovy, 2000). Water extracts showed cancer-inhibiting activity in white mice. Mycelium is strongly antimicrobial.
Storage: Best eaten fresh. Slice thin and dry. Or sauté to remove moisture, then freeze—double-bag to prevent dehydration and freezer burn.
Comments: These mushrooms are easily spotted and found along mountain trails and in forests along beaches.
Turkey tail
Polyporaceae (Trametes versicolor [L.: Fries] Pilat.)
Origin: Latin versicolor means “changing colors” or “many colors.” Trametes is Latin for “measuring.”
Season: Year-round. Most common and collectible in Washington throughout summer and fall.
Identification: Trametes versicolor, also known as Coriolus versicolor and Polyporus versicolor, is a polypore, brown rot saprobe, commonly called turkey tail. The mushroom forms colonies on wood often with the caps in tiled layers. Caps are variegated, fan shaped, leathery, often fused together, with smooth to wavy margins, and exhibit a variety of colors. The mushroom when viewed from above often looks like a fanned turkey tail (hence the name) and displays concentric rows or zones of different hues; typical colors are brown, rust brown, black, blue gray, and, in older specimens, there may be green algae growth atop caps. Cap has zones of fuzzy hair. Flesh of cap is typically less than 0.13"–0.25" thick and 2”–3.5" wide. Pores are whitish to light brown, twisted, small, and numerous, 2–5 pores/millimeter.
Spore: Spore print is white.
Habitat: A common polypore mushroom found in forests throughout the world growing on stumps, dead branches, and dead trees, primarily hardwoods but occasionally on conifers—available year-round.
Look-alikes: T. hirsute is gray to grayish white and hairy. T. trametes caps are velvety to the touch. The concentric rings of T. trametes are different colors: white, but also brown, red, yellow, buff. T. ochracea lacks distinctive rings or zones of color and is reddish brown in color, or white to buff and stiffer to the touch.
Edibility: Not edible but available for medicinal preparations
Medicinal: Prepared as a medicinal tea. Sold over the counter as a medicinal supplement. Used by Chinese medical doctors to treat infection and/or inflammation of the upper respiratory tract, urinary tract, and digestive tract, and also used as therapy for chronic hepatitis and to treat general weakness of the immune system. Krestin, a proprietary anti-cancer drug approved in Japan, is extracted from the turkey tail mushroom. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a clinical trial of turkey tail extract for patients with advanced prostate cancer to take in combination with conventional chemotherapy. Another trial pending FDA approval will test the effects of taking the extract along with a vaccine treatment in women with breast cancer (Bastyr University, 2012). The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported that T. versicolor is a “promising candidate for chemoprevention due to the multiple effects on the malignant process, limited side effects and safety.”
Storage: Dry and freeze or store in sealed jars.
Comments: One of the easiest mushrooms to identify and find; an attractive addition to landscaping as the fungus endures for months, even years.
Recipe: Prepare turkey tail as a decoction if chopped, or a hot infusion if powdered, or an alcohol tincture (chopped or powdered).
Resinous polypore, rubbery feel, bland taste
Hapalopilaceae (Ischnoderma resinosum (Schrad.) P. Karst; I. benzoinum )
Origin: Latin resinosum meaning “resinous.” Ischnoderma means “thin skinned,” thus “thin skinned and resinous.”
Season: In Washington late summer through the fall and early winter
Identification: Ischnoderma resinosum’s pore surface is white, and the top is brownish orange to dark brown, becoming black with age. The caps are up to 10" wide and 1" thick, often smaller. When young it is soft, thick, light colored at the edges, and shaded darker near the substrate, where it is attached without a stipe. When young and fresh this mushroom secretes brownish-amber-colored resinous water droplets. The pore surface bruises brown when young. And it is the young mushroom, fleshy and soft, that is edible. With age the mushroom becomes hard, dark, shiny, crusty, leathery, and inedible.
Spore: Spore print is white.
Habitat: Ischnoderma resinosum occurs on fallen and dead, sometimes long-dead, hard-wood and conifer tree trunks and branches, dispersed on the dead tree singly or in overlapping clusters. It causes a white-to-yellow rot of the trees and may have an anise-like smell. Found in the fall, it is widespread in North America. I. benzoinum is found on conifers best in Sept–Oct.
Look-alikes: Because of its hydrated softness, the resinous polypore mushroom is unique but might be confused with reishi, lacking, however, the color of reishi or G. tsugae. I. benzoinum is similar but found specifically on conifers. Its flesh is thinner.
Edible: Flesh of young specimens is soft and juicy, rubbery touch, somewhat bland with fleeting bitterness.
Medicinal: Ischnoderma resinosum lectins are proteins that can be used as diagnostic probes and are highly specific to sugar and are used in wound healing and reducing scars. They are carbohydrate-binding molecules used as markers or probes in agriculture and medical research and were isolated from Ischnoderma in 1995. Lectins are ubiquitous in nature, holding great potential in medicine. Antibacterial and cancer inhibiting, inhibits sarcoma 180, a transplantable, nonmetastasizing tumor that is often implanted in mice for cancer research. Ischnoderma mushroom shows moderate inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus and immune-modulating health benefits (Shodhganga, 2011 pdf)
Storage: Do not store. Eat immediately.
Comments: Abundant in old-growth forests with maple and conifers—decomposing dead conifers felled by other fungi—a stellar recycler and passable survival food.
Recipe: It is best to stew this mushroom in its own juices, reducing the juice, then make gravy with the chopped mushroom and its reduced juice for venison and other wild game (add crushed juniper berries), or cook by itself with root vegetables, reducing the stew to a thick consistency. Try 2 cups of sliced mushroom, with 1 tablespoon soy, 2 tablespoons oil, 2 tablespoons white wine, 1 tablespoon dry sherry, and add one chopped garlic and one chopped shallot. Cook over low heat, first bringing out the moisture in the mushrooms, garlic, and shallot, and then reducing the broth to creamy thick richness. This should please your most discriminating guests.
Ganoderma tsugae
Ganodermataceae (Ganoderma oregonense [Murrill]; Ganoderma tsugae [Murrill])
Origin: Ganoderma is Latin for “shiny skin.” Latin lucida means “bright, shiny.” Tsugae or tsuga is new Latin from Japanese meaning “larch.”
Season: Year-round; find fresh, young mushrooms in May–Aug in Washington
Identification: These two polypores and related Asian varieties of these mushrooms, called reishi or ling chi are saprophytic brown rot fungi that break down wood by feeding on it. G. tsugae and G. oregonense may be the same species and both are kidney- or fan-shaped with a shiny red-lacquer-like sheen on the upper skin. Typically associated with either hemlocks or larch and a few other conifers, these two Ganodermas frequently grow at the base and on fallen logs or stumps, especially conifers. They are 4"–8" wide and attached to the substrate with a thick, hard, dark stipe.
Habitat: G. tsugae and G. oregonense grow in hemlock forests and are available year-round but best in the summer to fall when they release spores. Both G. tsugae and G. lucidum have a worldwide reputation and distribution in both tropical and temperate zones. Distribution is widespread in old-growth forests. It is cultivated both outdoors on logs and on beds of wood chips.
Look-alikes: See Ischnoderma resinosum above and Fomitipsis pinacola (red belted conk).
Medicinal: Medicinal rieshi is added to soups with bitter consequences. It is available in standardized extracts and powders for health-supportive alternative medicine therapies. Reishi has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for 2,500 years. It is considered an immune-system modulator and used for treating viral infections such as the flu (influenza), swine flu, and avian flu. Other traditional uses include treating respiratory problems (asthma and bronchitis), as well as stomach ulcers and heart disease. Reishi is antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, and anticancer, and is both an immune-system modulator and therapy for the immune system. Active chemistries are polysaccharides, terpenes, and other compounds contained in the mycelia and fruiting bodies.
Storage: Dried whole or powdered, in sealed containers—keep dry.
Comments: I found G. oregonense near Lake Ozette, Washington. Purchase Ganoderma species, the whole mushroom and powders, at Asian markets and online.
Recipe: Mushrooms and recipes available online. The hard and dry mushroom is powdered and chemistry is drawn with a water decoction or with a long hot infusion, like a tea.
Ganoderma oregonense budding on an old-growth hemlock
17-inch wide L. officinalis
Fomitopsidaceae (Laricifomes officinalis [Vill. Kotyl & Pouzar] [Synonym: Fomitopsis officinalis Villars: FR.] Bondartsev & Singer)
Origin: Latin fomentum means “tinder”; officinale means “medicinal uses.”
Season: Available year-round, actively spore producing in late summer and fall
Identification: Laricifomes officinalis is a large bracket fungus found on the trunks of coniferous hosts, where it causes a brown rot. Fruiting bodies persist and become larger and larger, building layer upon layer over time—specimens may be 16" x 18" (see photo) and a few up to 20" long and nearly as wide. Sporophores (the mushroom’s spore-producing body) are large. These distinctive conks are columnar or hoof shaped. They are soft, yellow-white when young, but soon becoming white and chalky. The decay produced by the fungus is brown, cubically cracked, with thick white felt like material in large cracks. Taste of the mushroom itself is very bitter.
Spore: The spore color is white.
Habitat: Available year-round, found in old growths on conifers in the northwestern United States, and is perhaps extinct in most of Asia and Europe. It is becoming rare within the old-growth forests of Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and British Columbia due to harvesting of old-growth trees.
Look-alikes: Younger specimens similar to Fomitopsis pinicola
Inedible: Not edible except as a tea or medicinal extract
Medicinal: Shows notable low minimum inhibitory concentrations against Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (Hwang, 2013). Agaricin from the mushroom is an anhidrotic, anti-inflammatory, and a parasympatholytic nerve agent. Pharmaceutical companies produce agaricin synthetically. Alcohol tinctures of the powdered mushroom appear effective as a smooth muscle relaxant for stomach cramps. Homeopathic doses may be effective against night sweats, pancreatic inflammation, and liver inflammation cramps (Rogers, 2011).
Storage: Dried and powdered in sealed containers or gelatin capsules
Comments: Shame on me! I picked the agarikon (first photo) from a larch and have lived to regret it. They are rare and so are old growths. I tried to compensate by collecting spores from the specimen and spreading them around the bases and wounds in larch trees. Did any of the spores fruit? I don’t know. But about 30 larches were inoculated in Washington, Idaho, and Montana (near Glacier National Park). Agarikon is now being produced in laboratory cultures. Native Americans referred to the fungi as “bread of ghosts” or “tree biscuits.” Spiritual references to the special powers of the mushroom and its hanging fruiting bodies are documented. Shamans and spiritual leaders hung hand-carved fruiting bodies, representing spiritual figures, and spirit catchers with large open mouths and stomachs from dance lodge walls and ceilings to capture spirits and protect the people. Upon the shaman’s death, the people buried the mushroom with the shaman.
Recipe: Seek medicinal preparation online, ready to use
L. officinalis on an old-growth larch
Cauliflower fungus attacking Douglas fir HUGH SMITH
Sparrassidaceae (Sparassis radicata, Weir)
Origin: From Greek word sparassein meaning to tear. Radicata means rooting.
Season: Summer, fall
Identification: A parasitic fungus in the order Polyporales that attacks Douglas fir and pine roots (brown cubical rot). It emerges from a rootlike base and spreads (expands). Specimens have been found weighing more than 50 pounds. Its unique shape helps identify the species. Many foragers (as the name implies) call it cauliflower fungus. Trudell and Ammirati, in their excellent field guide Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest, describe the numerous wavy branches as egg noodle–like. They have obviously eaten cauliflower and know the difference. I concur with their description. Individual flat, wavy branches are pale and creamy colored. Fruiting body is a mass of wavy and curled lobes giving the overall effect of cauliflower, cabbage, or egg noodles. Once you find it you will have little trouble identifying the species. A difficult find, however.
Spores: Smooth, oval, and white
Habitat: In conifer forests and associated with and attacking Douglas fir and pines
Look-alikes: Its unique shape helps it stand alone and makes it easy to identify. There are two eastern relatives, Sparassis herbstii and Sparassis crispa.
Edible: For me, a rare but delightful find, pleasing to the palate. Be certain the specimen is young and tender.
Storage: Dry in an air dryer. Best eaten fresh.
Comments: Begin your search around Douglas firs. It attacks roots.
RECIPE
Cauliflower Tempura
Cooking oil
Tempura batter
Cauliflower fungus
Soy sauce
Yellow mustard
Purchase a package of tempura coating. Cut the cauliflower fungus into chunks, then coat as per the directions on the package and deep-fry. Use soy sauce and yellow mustard (blend the 2 ingredients) as a condiment.
