Hen-of-the-woods
Grifola frondosa · Grifola polypores (Grifola)
Special mushroom – look, don’t pick Red List: Vulnerable (3)Also: Maitake
Season, habitat and weather analysis for your place →
Edible and known as a cultivated mushroom (“maitake”) – but the wild form is vulnerable in Germany (Red List category 3). Please leave it standing and take photos. If you want to eat it, buy cultivated ones.
Recognise it safely – what matters
- Cluster of many grey, spatula-shaped caps
- White pores, no gills
- At the base of old oaks
Features
- Cap
- Large cluster (15–50 cm, often several kilos) of many small spatula- to fan-shaped caps (2–7 cm), grey to grey-brown, laterally stalked.
- Underside
- White, fine pores, running down the little stalks.
- Stem
- White, repeatedly branched, fleshy base from which the caps grow.
- Flesh
- White, fibrous, not discolouring.
- Smell
- Spicy; old specimens smell unpleasant (mousy).
- Spore print
- White.
Season
JFMAMJJASOND
Habitat
At the base and on the roots of old oaks, less often beech or sweet chestnut; often at the same tree for years.
Quercia, Faggio, altre specie arboree
Risk of confusion
Never identify mushrooms by pictures or an app alone. When in doubt, ask a mushroom expert – and only pick what you know for sure.