A shelving, oyster-like gilled mushroom that fruits on logs in cold weather, often after the first frosts, and is one of the last mushrooms of the season. Its slimy cap varies from yellow-green to olive, brownish or violet-tinged, and contrasts with its yellow to orange-yellow gills. It was long placed in Panellus and Pleurotus but is now in Sarcomyxa.
Edibility disputed; not recommended. Some sources call it edible but tough and in need of long, slow cooking; others call it inedible because of a bitter taste. The cultivated East Asian mushroom sold as this species is now treated as the separate species Sarcomyxa edulis.
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Habitat
Saprobic on dead wood of hardwoods and sometimes conifers, single or in overlapping shelving clusters; fruits late in the season, roughly October to December in eastern North America, usually after frost.
Distribution
Northern temperate Europe and North America; also reported from Asia. The closely related, cultivated East Asian 'mukitake' is now treated as the separate species Sarcomyxa edulis, and how North American collections relate to the two species is not fully settled.
Characteristics
Cap: 2.5-10 cm, shell- to kidney-shaped, slimy when moist, margin incurved; yellowish green, olive, brownish green, sometimes violet-tinged or grayish. Gills: attached to subdecurrent, close, yellowish white to orange-yellow when young, browning with age from the edges. Stem: absent or a stout lateral stub, yellowish to brownish. Veil: absent. Spore print: whitish to yellowish.
