It Caught My Eye: Humongus Fungus Amongus
Biking in to work this morning I had to double back and get a shot of this fabulously surreal and colorful growth on the trunk of a curbside tree on Redondo just where it splits off of from La Brea south of Olympic (click to triplify):
I’m no arborist, botanist or fungitech, so I’ve relied on the internest to show me that this might be a particularly flourishing example of Laetiporus, a bracket fungus commonly called “Sulphur Shelf” (aka “Chicken of the Woods”). Hence the name, apparently it is quite edible with a “taste similar to lemony chicken” (via Wiki). I’ll take their word for it. I’ll also accept the assertion that while most tree fungi are potenitally destructive to their hosts owing to their parasitic nature, sulphur shelf apparently is not so voracious.
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I too am no mycologist, and wouldn’t dare to touch, much less eat, it. But I gotta say it looks gorgeous. I hope it’s tasty too.
Looks like it should taste like Candy Corn.
There’s a guy who’s web page has an homage to this type of fungus and details his experience. He calls it a tree brain and one year someone stole it as the fungus is somewhat of a delicacy. (his site is called The Sneeze btw)