Turkey tail

Description

The turkey tail is a thin, tough, leathery mushroom in the shape of small fans or rosettes, usually 3–8 cm wide. Its top has distinct concentric bands in shades of brown, grey, bluish and black, and the margin is paler. The underside is cream, finely porous. It has no stem.

It grows all year round, overlapping in groups, on trunks, stumps and dead branches of broadleaf trees in forests, parks and gardens. It is very common in Poland.

It is distinguished from similar fungi by its finely porous, not smooth, underside and by the multicoloured zones. Older specimens are sometimes greenish from algae. It is not a culinary mushroom.

Identification features

Cap

Fruiting body stemless, 3–8 (up to 10) cm wide, 2–5 mm thick; attached to the tree sideways (bracket-shaped) or centrally (plate-shaped, rosette-shaped). Young fruiting bodies almost uniformly light brown and felty. Older ones are bare, silky-glossy, with distinct concentric zones in colours from brown through dark blue to black (a characteristic feature of the species). Margin sharp, thin, the palest; surface uneven, radially wrinkled, shortly hairy or rough. On older specimens algae often develop, giving a greenish tint.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

Poroid, one layer of tubes 0.5–2 mm long, with toothed or serrated edges. Tubes and pores cream, light brown in older specimens. Pores round, becoming angular and irregular with age, 0.15–0.4 mm in diameter (3–5 pores per mm). No stem, so no attachment of the hymenophore to a stem.

Stem

No stem; the fruiting body attaches sideways or centrally to the substrate.

Flesh

White, very thin (2–5 mm), elastic, leathery (too tough to eat), aromatic. Under the felt of the surface there is a dark layer above the whitish flesh. Taste: no data; it should not be tested.

Spore print and spores

Spore print straw-yellow. Spore dimensions: no data.

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. A saprotroph causing white rot of wood (decomposes lignin). Grows on trunks and stumps of broadleaf trees, often soon after the tree is felled or dies; also recorded on fir and spruce. Fruiting bodies usually grow in groups, overlapping like roof tiles. It is sometimes eaten by insect larvae, including the moth Nemaxera betulinella.

Distribution. Cosmopolitan, present on all continents except Antarctica. Very common in Europe and in Poland, less so in riverside forests and at higher mountain elevations. Grows in forests, thickets, gardens and parks. It is not under species protection in Poland.

Fruiting. All year round.

What can it be confused with?

• Trametes ochracea (ochre bracket) — Fruiting body thicker, less multicoloured, matt (usually chestnut or grey-cocoa), with a hump at the base.
• Stereum hirsutum (hairy curtain crust) and Stereum ostrea (false turkey tail) — Similar on top, but the hymenophore is smooth, without tubes and pores.
• Trametes hirsuta, T. betulina, T. suaveolens, Bjerkandera adusta, Cerrena unicolor, Trichaptum spp. — Mentioned as similar; detailed differences — no data.

Never rely on a single feature. If you are not sure — do not pick it; show the mushroom to a qualified mushroom expert.

Interesting facts

• The English name “turkey tail” comes from the resemblance to the tail feathers of a wild turkey; the Latin versicolor means “multicoloured”.
• Linnaeus described the species in 1753; it has more than 70 scientific synonyms.
• In 1973 the krestin preparation, obtained from the turkey tail, was introduced to the market in Japan.
• Inoculating stumps with its mycelium is being tested in order to protect stands of trees from honey fungi.