Autumn Oyster Mushroom

Autumn Oyster Mushroom is an edible mushroom suitable for various uses: fresh (boiled for about 25 minutes) in soups and main dishes, pickled or salted (better with young mushrooms), and can be dried. It grows on stumps, live and fallen tree trunks, and root bases of deciduous and coniferous trees.

Appears from late August to early September and grows until stable autumn frosts, forming colonies. Cap: up to 12 cm in diameter, initially convex, almost spherical, later flat with a central bump. Edges start curled inward and then spread out. The cap skin is brownish, gray-brown, or yellow-brown depending on tree species and growing conditions.

Gills: descending, thin, pale yellow-white, with a brownish tint and brown spots in mature mushrooms.

Stipe: long, 8-15(20) cm in length and about 1 cm in diameter, often curved, elastic, with a light membranous ring or remnants of it. Flesh: thin, firm or soft, tough in the stipe, whitish, with a pleasant mushroom aroma.

Autumn Oyster Mushroom is a species of polypore mushrooms, one of the most valuable species growing on wood. In terms of lifestyle and nutrition, it can be compared to the common oyster mushroom. It inhabits only dead wood, predominantly deciduous trees such as beech, oak, chestnut; on conifers it is rare. In natural conditions, the autumn oyster mushroom grows in clusters.