North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Matt Demmon <mdemmon@gmail.com>]

Definitely not an oyster as others have pointed out. Oysters have gills, not pores. I hesitate to say what it is, because I feel like either the person eating it or his expert friend who is looking at the actual mushroom should be 100% sure about the ID first. Anyways, it is a Dryad's Saddle, or Pheasant Back, or someone else called it a Grouse Wing. Very common, rather distinctive at least to me, and tastes really not all that great even when young. Edible but I don't bother. A key characteristic to my nose is a distinct smell of watermelon rind when fresh. Not everyone seems to be able to smell that.

And I repeat everyones comments to not ever eat a mushroom unless you are sure you know what it is and if you don't know enough about mushrooms to be sure, don't eat any wild mushrooms. There are WAY too many species of mushrooms for most guidebooks to be helpful in IDing the trickier ones. Stick to a few easy ones at first, and find someone who knows what they are doing to help you out.

-matt
z5 se MI

On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 9:10 PM, <Jwlehman@aol.com> wrote:

Can anyone verify this is the eatable Oyster Mushroom?  We had a rain about three weeks ago and this came up on a dead maple tree. The large one is better than 12 inches across.