Laetiporus sulphureus is a species of bracket fungus found in Europe and North America. Its common names are crab-of-the-woods, sulphur polypore, sulphur shelf, and chicken-of-the-woods. Its fruit bodies grow as striking golden-yellow shelf-like structures on tree trunks and branches. Old fruitbodies fade to pale beige or pale grey. The undersurface of the fruit body is made up of tubelike pores rather than gills.
Laetiporus sulphureus
Underside, on Ginkgo biloba
Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) on the Trinity Trail, Palos Heights, Illinois, on September 10, 2019.
Laetiporus sulphureus prepared dish, with onions
Polypores are a group of fungi that form large fruiting bodies with pores or tubes on the underside. They are a morphological group of basidiomycetes-like gilled mushrooms and hydnoid fungi, and not all polypores are closely related to each other. Polypores are also called bracket fungi or shelf fungi, and they characteristically produce woody, shelf- or bracket-shaped or occasionally circular fruiting bodies that are called conks.
Polypores (Ganoderma sp.) growing on a tree in Borneo
Trametes versicolor, a colorful bracket fungus, commonly known as turkey tail
A bracket fungus (Pycnoporus sp.) with a tough, woody cap
The blushing bracket showing the red bruising, which is one identification characteristic