Turkey Tail

not listed

not listed

not listed

Turkey Tail is a very common, widespread, wood decaying, bracket fungus. It is the most common polypore and one of the most common mushrooms in North American woodlands. It fruits in the spring and persists through the summer or fall. It is found in rows, dense overlapping clusters, or rosettes on dead logs or stumps. It is saprobic, occurring on logs and stumps of dead hardwood trees, especially oaks.

The fruiting body is a small to medium-sized, unstalked bracket. The bracket is circular, semi-circular, fan-shaped, or kidney-shaped. It can be ¾″ to 4″ in diameter, but is usually no more than 2¾″ in diameter. It is leathery and flexible when fresh, becoming rigid and less flexible when dry. The upper surface is dry and velvety due to a dense covering of fine hairs. It is variable in color with narrow, alternating, concentric bands of white, gray, brown, yellowish-buff, reddish-brown, or black. It is also variable in texture, with alternating hairy and silky smooth zones. The margin is white or creamy when the cap is actively growing.

The underside is white to yellowish and densely covered with spore-bearing pores. The pores are minute but visible without a hand lens. There are 3 to 8 pores per millimeter. The spore tubes are no more than 1 ⁄16″ deep.

The flesh is tough and leathery.

The spore print is white or yellowish.

False Turkey Tail (Stereum ostrea) usually forms individual brackets that do not fuse into rosettes. It is often orange above. The underside is smooth to slightly bumpy with no pores.

Smoky Polypore (Bjerkandera adusta) is usually weakly zoned in shades of gray and brown, sometimes not zoned. The margins turn brown to black on mature and older specimens. The pore surface on mature specimens is smoky gray to blackish.

Dead hardwoods, especially oaks; sometimes on wounds of live trees; rarely on conifers

Present year round but fruits in the spring

Sources

4, 7, 24, 26, 29, 30, 77.

Very common and widespread

Four species, Trametes pubescens, Trametes ochracea, Trametes ectypa, and Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor), form a species complex. The species are morphologically very similar, differing only in the color and texture of the upperside of the bracket. They are also genetically distinct – they are not sexually compatible.

Fungi green and beige

medicinal uses: immune booster

Turkey Tail fungus in the Cannon River Wilderness Area

Location: Martin County, Fairmont, MN

Location: Bald Eagle Bluff SNA

Fungi green and beige

Location: Maplewood Nature Center

Location: Hennepin County

medicinal uses: immune booster

Location: Spring Lake Park Reserve

Location: Fort Snelling State Park

Location: Cannon River Wilderness Area

Turkey Tail fungus in the Cannon River Wilderness Area