E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Summary:
Grifola frondosa forms a large clustered mass of grayish brown, fan-shaped to spoon-shaped caps with whitish pores and lateral white stems branching repeatedly from a common base. The common name hen-of-the-woods comes from its resemblance to a small hen with its feathers fluffed up. The weight typically 5-10 pounds, but clusters weighing 100 pounds have been recorded. It is rare in the Pacific Northwest (Gilbertson).

Grifola frondosa has been found in WA, ID, AR, GA, IA, IL, IN, LA, MA, MD, MN, MO, MT, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TN, VA, WI, and WV, (Gilbertson), In BC, it is ''known from Greenwood on unidentified wood, and two collections “on dead fir stump” in Victoria'', (Ginns(28)). It is also found in Europe and Asia, but molecular analysis suggests a species partition separating eastern North American and Asian specimens, (Shen, Q.(1)). It also occurs in Australia (Breitenbach),

Cap:
a structure up to 40cm wide consists of a stem much branched from a thick base and giving rise to large number of imbricate, petaloid or fan-shaped and often confluent caps up to 8cm wide and 0.8cm thick, margins thin, often undulate [wavy] or curled under, annual; the upper surfaces of the caps pale lavender gray becoming darker and finally a dull dark brown, margins colored the same; not zoned, very finely tomentose to bald, smooth or radiately wrinkled, (Gilbertson), 15-60cm or more wide mass of numerous small overlapping caps arising from repeatedly branching base, the caps 2-7(10)cm wide, "spoon-shaped, tongue-shaped, or fan-shaped and flattened" with the stems off-center or more often lateral, margins often wavy; gray to brown or grayish brown; dry, smooth or rough to fibrillose, (Arora)

Flesh:
up to 0.2cm thick in individual caps, up to several centimeters thick at base and in main branches of stem; ivory white, (Gilbertson), firm, rather tough; white, stems fleshy but tough, (Arora)

Pores:
2-4 per mm, angular, with thin torn walls; ivory white; tube layer decurrent on stem, often to the ground line, up to 0.5cm thick, distinct from flesh, "pale tan on older dried specimens, brittle and shattering easily when dried", (Gilbertson), 1-3 per mm, decurrent; white or yellowish; tube layer 0.2-0.3cm thick, (Arora)

Stem:
base up to 10cm wide, stem much branched from base, cream colored, (Gilbertson), stems branching from base, fleshy but tough, off-center or more often lateral; white or pale grayish, (Arora)

Odor:
pleasant, nut-like, (Gilbertson), mushroomy with a hint of meal (Lincoff(1)), mild (Miller)

Taste:
mild when young (Arora), sweet (Lincoff(1)), pleasant (Miller)

Microscopic:
spores 6-7 x 4-4.5 microns, oval to elliptic, smooth, inamyloid, colorless; basidia 4-spored, 22-26 x 7-8 microns, clavate, with a basal clamp; cystidia none; hyphal system dimitic: context generative hyphae 2.5-5 microns wide, colorless, thin-walled, with clamp connections, rarely branched, context skeletal hyphae 2.5-6 microns wide, "moderately thick-walled, nonseptate, with infrequent branching", trama hyphae similar but generative hyphae more frequently branched, (Gilbertson), 5-7 x 3.5-5 microns, broadly elliptic, smooth, (Arora)

Spore Deposit:
white (Arora)