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).

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)

Notes:
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),

EDIBILITY

only the young tender caps are worth eating but they are choice: long slow cooking is recommended; "allergies" have been reported, (Arora)

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Hericium ramosum (Bull. ex Merat) Letellier
Hydnum coralloides Scop.