Monday, January 21, 2008

Turkey Tail Mushrooms




Turkey Tail Mushroom (Trametes versicolor)

According to the Mushroom Expert:

The Turkey Tail is one of the most common mushrooms in North American woods, found virtually anywhere there are dead hardwood logs and stumps to decompose--and, occasionally, on conifer wood too. Its cap colors are extremely variable, but tend to stay in the buff, brown, cinnamon, and reddish brown range. The mushrooms are strikingly "zonate" with sharply contrasting concentric zones of color, and the surface of the cap is finely fuzzy or velvety. Often the zones represent contrasts in texture as well as color, so that fuzzy zones alternate with smoother ones.
Because the colors of Turkey Tails varies widely and because there are similar looking mushrooms, Michael Kuo, the mushroom expert, offers a six-point Totally True Turkey Tail Test on his site. Check it out if you want to learn more.

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8 comments:

Rebecca Clayton said...

Very pretty!

Anonymous said...

Stunning photo for sure! Wish I knew my mushrooms better!

Tom said...

We have this as well over here, the clours are striking at times.. never noticed to textures so I will look out for that..

smilnsigh said...

They are beautiful.

We have a little woods across the street. I should look for some. At the edge, that is. I'm too old to go exploring inside it. -grin-

Mari-Nanci

Lana Gramlich said...

So THAT'S what they are. Thanks for the info. We have tons of them in our area.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

One does see this type of mushroom a lot. I think they are so pretty.

Andree said...

I'm going to check it out! Looks like a petticoat!

lisa said...

I just love these! They keep well, too...I have several on my bookshelf for decoration. (Hey, I'm not into glassware, so why not?. ;-)