In July of 2020, my next-door neighbor found a fungus extraordinaire in the woods behind our homes, and she graciously shared this photo and the location with me. I am amazed at what can be found when we take a walk in the woods! Look at this beautiful creation of nature! To track down the name of this exquisite fungus, my neighbor consulted a fungi expert. It is commonly known as Chicken of the Woods, since it is edible. It is classified in the genus Laetiporus.
What a unique and beautiful architectural design! The fungi looks like it was constructed of concentric, half circles of orange with white margins piled in decreasingly smaller sizes to create a knockout, look-at-me fungus extraordinaire! Note its size by comparing my neighbor’s feet with the Chicken of the Woods growing on the ground in front of her.
This year, I searched for Chicken of the Woods early. I was amazed to find two Chicken of the Woods in the same location as in 2020 but three months earlier. In April 2023, I was again attracted to the size and design of this unique fungus. But this year, the design was off. The 2023 architectural playbook was different from 2020. Instead of a symmetrical, cylindrical form, the form was chaotic. Small, orange, half-sized and quarter-sized, circular sections were haphazardly piled on top of each other, along with white and orange blobs. Possibly the fungus’s growth was interrupted by the four days of March frost, and when the warm weather returned, the growth continued.
Fungi, though plant-like, are not plants. Fungi do not produce the green pigment chlorophyll, do not carry on photosynthesis, and create spores instead of seeds. When the soil temperature, soil moisture content and air temperatures have reached the proper balance, the reproductive cycle ramps up! Spores begin to germinate underground and send out a network of…
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