Central Pennsylvania Wild Mushroom Club

My find was not quite as dramatic as Diana's, but I too recently found a Laetiporus mushroom, shown in the photo below.  Being as how it's still May, I feel compelled to label it a "spring chicken," along with Diana and her spectacular find.  Bill Russell discusses the early fruiting chickens in his book and says they are not particularly rare in this area.  But there's a complicating factor in this case.  Bill indicates that the early fruiting specimens are usually White Chicken mushrooms, Laetiporus persicinus or Laetiporus sulphureus var. semialbinus with white pores.  But I would have to classify the spore surface of this mushroom as definitely yellow, indicating it is likely a regular Laetiporus sulphureus.  I found the mushroom growing on a dead stump, probably oak.  I was surprised that a chicken mushroom not only was in evidence this time of year, but was already mature well prior to the end of May!

I will note the surface of the cap is not as bright orange as usual.  But the mushroom is mature and I suspect the cap color may just be faded.  This fading brings up the possibility the mushroom is a leftover from late last fall.  The flesh of the mushroom seems relatively fresh and I have never previously seen a Sulphur Shelf survive the winter in such good condition, but I did find a well preserved Mock Orange Oyster earlier in the year so I wouldn't rule out the possibility.  Whatever the case, it's certainly a bit of a fungal oddity.  As always, comments from those more knowledgeable are invited. 

Dave