365 Urban Species. #252: Hen of the Woods

Urban species #252: Hen of the woods Grifola frondosa.

At Thanksgiving, 2004, my in-laws treated me to a nice meal at a Cambridge restaurant; I had the chef's vegetarian option: Root vegetables with wild mushroom broth. cottonmanifesto and I had some fun identifying the wild mushrooms in the broth. As it turned out, they were Grifola frondosa. They are often known by their Japanese name, maitake, or their English common name, hen of the woods. This cute descriptor comes from the mushroom's ruffled-feathers appearance; several overlapping caps, rather than a single bracket or stalk. The fungus weakly parasitizes the roots of maples and oaks, reappearing over several years, to the delight of foragers. It can be found throughout temperate America, Europe, and Asia. For whatever reason, members of the Boston Mycological Club are reporting that this mushroom is appearing a full month earlier than usual this year.