Specimen of the Month: Clue in the Painting

Founding naturalist Lois Nestel captured local fungi through her artwork. Some of these acrylic paintings show the fungi within their environment--an important key to identification. 

Our understanding the kingdom Fungi is still growing. Up until 2001, all "chicken of the woods" mushrooms found in our general area were considered the same species (Laetiporus sulphureus). All observable characteristics pointed to such--shelf-like clusters fruiting on dead or dying hardwoods and occasionally conifers, found summer through autumn with blaze orange to yellow flesh, and a pale yellow pore surface underneath releasing white reproductive spores.

Photo by Selena Gonzalez

But not all is as it appears. Much of our current fungal understanding is now derived from scientific study at the DNA level. Long story short, those chicken of the woods mushrooms fruiting on hemlock are not the same species as their hardwood-loving counterparts. The host tree points to the species--hardwoods such as oak provide nourishment for a Laetiporus sulphureus fungus, while a chicken fungus found on a hemlock is likely Laetiporus huroniensis. 

Lois unknowingly left a clue in her painting--a few oak leaves shade the fruiting chicken of the woods below. Which species would she have encountered?