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Chicken of the woods or Laetiporus sulphureus is a bright, bold, soft-to-the-touch fungus. It is a bright sulphur-yellow fungus with thick, overlapping brackets protruding from their tree-trunk habitat. It is these individual brackets that are soft and spongy when young.

If the young fungus fruit-body is gently squeezed, then it will ooze a yellowish liquid. The fan-shaped brackets have an undulating edge or margin, with a velvety and yellow-orange, banded, upper surface. The underside of the bracket is yellow and punctured by masses of tiny pores, which when mature, will release the reproductive spores.

With its distinctive appearance, the chicken of the woods is easy-to-spot growing high up on the trunks of standing deciduous trees such as oak, sweet chestnut, yew, and cherry. This rather striking fungus gets its name from the texture of its distinctive sulphur-yellow coloured flesh, which they say is rather like cooked chicken. Its other common name, for obvious reasons, is the ‘sulphur polypore’. As noted in previous articles, fungi are in their own kingdom, alongside the ‘Plants’, the ‘Animals’, and a few lesser groupings.

They get their nutrition and energy from organic matter which they break down or digest, unlike most plants which use sunlight to make sugars through a process called photosynthesis. Generally, when we see a ‘fungus’ it is only just the reproductive parts or the fruiting bodies, manifested as ‘mushrooms’ which are obvious to us. These fruit-bodies generate spores for reproduction, though many fungi are also able to reproduce asexually by fragmentation as their hyphae break up and disperse. It is these mostly unseen fungal hyphae that are what I describe as the ‘business end’ of the fungus. These tiny, often microscopic filaments colonise would-be food sources, break them down and transport them throughout the living fungus.

Chicken of the woods is generally edible but may cause adverse reactions (dizziness and stomach upset) in some people, or when growing on poisonous hosts such as yew. It is also ecologically important as it supports a diversity of wildlife, with some specialist beetles like the hairy fungus beetle (Pseudotriphyllus suturalis).

Professor Ian D. Rotherham, researcher, writer & broadcaster on wildlife & environmental issues, is contactable on [email protected]; follow Ian’s blog (https://ianswalkonthewildside.wordpress.com/) and Twitter @IanThewildside

On the wildside: Chicken of the woods