Turkey Tail
Scientific name: Trametes versicolor
Synonyms: Turkey Tail, Many-Colored Polypore, Kawaratake, Yun Zhi, Cloud Mushroom, Coriolus versicolor, Polyporus versicolor
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The Coriolus versicolor has broad and flat rosette-shaped hats with a diameter of 2-6 cm, in exceptional cases up to 8 cm. The fruiting bodies are usually in large groups on the substrate, they can be grown stalk-like or somewhat run down to the substrate. The top of the relatively thin hats is always colorfully zoned, the color ranges from light to dark brown, also olivelike, bluish and reddish tones may be present. The white underside of the hats is covered with fine (3 - 5 per mm), round-cornered pores.
Natural habitat:
The Coriolus versicolor is a common wood saprobe or weak parasite. In Central Europe its main substrate is beech, rarely oak, birch, common hazel and willow. In addition, the Coriolus versicolor can be found in many other hardwoods and often also occurs in softwood. It grows on stumps, wood piles, lying trunks, branches and twigs. The species is found in central Europe in all forest types, beyond and outside of forests, if suitable substrate is present.
In Europe most common on the european beech but also grows on oak, tan oak, alder, poplar, aspen, elm, ironwood.
Appropriate Substrate: Hardwood (beech, oak, tan oak, alder, poplar, aspen, elm, ironwood, apple, cherry and other fruit trees)
Usage: Vital mushroom, decoration
It is used in traditional chinese medicine and contains compound polysaccharide peptides (PSP) and PSK, a protein-bound polysaccharide.
The mushroom is sometimes used for decoration purposes in floristics.
Taxonomy:
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Polyporales
Family: Polyporaceae
Genus: Trametes
Spores: 5 - 6 x 1.5 - 2 µ, cyclindric, smooth, slightly curved, whitish in deposit