Fall is a great time for mushrooms with many exciting ones popping up right now!

There are several different mushrooms that have this general form and without closer images of some features and more information on this mushroom it is hard for me to be certain. However, here are a few that you may see this time of year that have a similar form (and others that may look like this as they age). Check out these descriptions and see if any fits what you have found:

• Meripilus sumstinei (Black staining polypore): https://www.mushroomexpert.com/meripilus_sumstinei.html
• Bondarzewia berkeleyi (Berkeley’s polypore): https://www.mushroomexpert.com/bondarzewia_berkeleyi.html
• Sparassis sp (Cauliflower mushrooms): https://www.mushroomexpert.com/sparassis_spathulata.html
• Grifola frondosa (Hen of the woods): https://www.mushroomexpert.com/grifola_frondosa.html

An important note that we do not comment on the edibility of mushrooms. There are many different things that can factor into whether a mushroom can make someone sick, including:

• Toxins (we do have some deadly poisonous mushrooms in this area)
• Allergies (for example, some mushrooms perfectly edible for one person might give another GI distress or a rash)
• drug interactions (alcohol and some medications can interact with mushrooms, even some commonly eaten)
• Where the mushroom was growing
• How to mushroom was cooked (even some choice edibles can make people sick if not cooked properly)
• Storage (the most common cause of people getting sick from eating mushrooms is eating a mushroom that would have been edible but was stored improperly and contaminated with bacteria or other molds)

Because of this, if you are interested in mushroom foraging I recommend you check out this factsheet (https://plantpathology.ca.uky.edu/files/ppfs-gen-14.pdf) and do so safely. In particular:

• Learn to ID commonly foraged edibles and distinguish them from look-alikes (and only forage a few select species that are easily identified instead of picking things and then trying to decide if they are edible)
• Identify all mushrooms you plan to eat with 100% certainty. There are numerous websites (e.g. https://www.mushroomexpert.com/) and online groups (e.g. https://www.facebook.com/groups/bluegrassmycological) that are wonderful resources and I recommend you use. But please do not rely on similar photos or the word of a stranger on the internet alone to determine whether or not to eat something. Instead do your own careful study.
• If you have concern that a poisonous mushroom was eaten, contact a medical professional immediately!