Choice
Oyster mushroom
Pleurotus ostreatus and relatives
The character that does the work
White decurrent gills on a stemless or side-stemmed fan growing from wood.
The specimen sheet, in examination order
01Cap
5 to 25 cm, shell or fan-shaped, grey, tan, buff or almost white, smooth, thin-fleshed.
02Underside
White gills running right down onto the stub of a stem, widely spaced, not forking.
03Stem, and the base
Very short, off to one side, or absent altogether.
04Flesh, cut
White, soft, thin.
05Spore print
06Where it grows
In overlapping shelves on dead and dying hardwood, especially beech, poplar and willow. Fruits in cold weather, including after frost.
When to look
Typically Jan to Dec in the northern hemisphere. Fruiting swings by weeks with rainfall and by a month or more with latitude, so this is when to look rather than when it will be there.
Worldwide.
What is worth knowing about it
The most forgiving wild mushroom to learn and the most widely cultivated, so a beginner can grow a known specimen at home and then recognise the wild one with confidence. The main caution is angel wings, a thin pure-white species on conifer wood that was regarded as edible for decades and has since been implicated in deaths, mostly among people with kidney disease. Learn oysters on hardwood.
Confused with
- Angel wings
- Mock oyster
- Elm oyster
In the kitchen
Tear rather than slice. They hold a lot of water, so give them a hot dry pan and space; crowded oysters steam and go grey and rubbery. The stem bases are tough and worth cutting away.
The techniques, and why they workGrowing it
This page tells you what to check. It does not tell you the mushroom in your hand is that species, and it cannot. If you are not certain, do not eat it. If you have already eaten something and feel unwell, contact a poison centre and keep an uncooked specimen.
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