Grifola frondosa    (Dicks.) S.F. Gray 

common name(s) : Hen of the Woods 

New classification: Basidiomycota/Agaricomycotina/Agaricomycetes/Incertae sedis/Polyporales/Meripilaceae  
Former classification: Basidiomycota/Homobasidiomycetes/Aphyllophoromycetideae  

synonyms: Polyporus frondosus, Polyporus intybaceus 

edibility : edible

photo gallery of  Grifola frondosa
photo gallery of  Grifola frondosa potential confusions with  Grifola frondosa toxicity of Grifola frondosa genus Grifola  

The fruiting body is a shrub of spatula-shaped or tongue-shaped caps, connected together by a thick central stem, grey to cream, branched, the grey to brown caps are numerous and intertwined.

The flesh is white, soft when young, brittle; its taste is pleasant then acrid with age; the odour is of mashed potatoes, hops, mice.

The fertile surface is made of white pores, under the caps. The spore print is white.

It grows on wood, in broad-leaved woods, on stumps or at the base of tree trunks which it parasites, on a rather acid soil, mostly with oaks and beech, also with hornbeam, chestnut trees.

The fruiting period takes place from July to December.
Dimensions: width of fruiting body approximately 32 cm (between 15 and 50 cm)

Chemical tests : none.

Distinctive features : numerous grey-brown caps, spatula- or tongue-shaped, emerging and branching from a thick trunk; whitish tubes; thin pored, not blackening when bruised; at the base of deciduous tree trunks

Grifola frondosa is infrequent and scattered in the forest of Rambouillet, and is infrequent, more generally speaking .
here should be the distribution map of Grifola frondosa in the forest of Rambouillet
Above : distribution map of Grifola frondosa in the forest of Rambouillet



page updated on 14/01/18