Identifing and foraging beach rose | Edible flowers and rosehips

Latin name: Rosa rugosa
Common names: beach rose, wrinkled rose, Asian beach rose, seaside rose, coastal rose
Seasons: Spring (flowers), late summer and fall (fruit/hips)
Edible: Yes, fruit and flower petals (but not seeds)
Medicinal: Immune support, anti-inflammatory, anti-aging
Nutritional: Vitamin C, A, E, K, B 1-3, polyphenols

Identification difficulty: Beginner

Roses are one of humankind's oldest plant allies and their use is also among the most widespread. Ancient Egyptians, Chinese and Persians used parts of roses as topical and internal medicine and even as offerings to royalty or the Gods, starting as much as 5000 years ago. And when it comes to rose hips--the fruit of the rose (more on that later)--they were consumed as a food by prehistoric people of all temperate climates, dating back at least 10,000 years. Roses are still being used as a food today, albeit in a much-reduced fashion, primarily as an ingredient in herbal teas. 

And when we get to the greater rose family (Rosaceae), many of our planet's most valuable food crops are members. Did you know that apples, pears, plums, apricots, peaches, blackberries, raspberries, juneberries, and even almonds are all part of the greater rose family? Well, now you do!

Beach rose bud

Beach rose quick history

The beach rose, Rosa rugosa, is unlike any other rose species you'll encounter in North America. That's because the beach rose isn't from around here. Native to Japan and China, the beach rose was imported to America in the early 1900s (perhaps as early as 1908), to combat erosion along our Atlantic coastline. Possibly introduced broadly to the States in either the 1858 or 1874 World's Fairs (both held in Philadelphia), this plant would be imported wholesale as an erosion solution during the 1920s. Many will argue that beach rose has become "invasive", but I would claim that to be a misunderstanding in the United States, at least. (I don't know enough about other countries to say one way or another for them). Beach rose was heavily planted as erosion control along the coasts of New England, the Mid-Atlantic states, down as far as Virginia, and up into Canada in Quebec, New Foundland, Labrador, Nova Scotia and P.E.I.  Further, it was planted as an ornamental in Ontario, Canada, and the northern mid-west and great lakes states of the U.S.A. 

Beach rose forms dense mats on coastal sand dunes, earning a reputation as an invasive species

As an invasive species

Beach rose has gotten a lot of bad rap in the past few decades (since around the late 1980s) as an invasive species. Today it can be found throughout Europe, the above-mentioned parts of North America, Central America, northern South America, and much of S.E. Asia. For this reason, it's considered invasive in many U.S. states. But here's the thing: I grew up in New York, New Jersey and many states in New England, where beach rose is often planted as an ornamental plant, and I've only ever seen it become a monoculture in unnatural, man-made or man-influenced environment. 

Not only have I never seen it spreading uncontrollably out of people's gardens, I've never seen it in the wild, outside of sand dunes. While sand dunes are natural, the dunes of New England are highly human-influenced and maintained by dumping non-native sands to preserve the beaches that are so crucial for tourism. (For what it's worth, I have no issue with man-made beach interference, but I do think it needs to be mentioned. In fact, beach rose is considered endangered in its native country of China--which doesn't imply invasive behavior. 

Identifying beach rose

Ok, coming down off my soapbox, let's get to what I'm sure y'all are here for: How to identify beach roses and how to use them in the kitchen or as medicine. The good news is that beach rose is arguably the very easiest rose species to identify.

Beach rose distribution, environment and growth patterns

Beach roses are found in the New England and Mid-Atlantic states south to Virginia and west to Missouri, and north into the eastern Canadian provinces, west to Ontario. It can also be found in Washington, Oregon, Alaska and northern California. It's spread broadly throughout South and Central America in recent years, including Mexico, Cuba, Panama, Argentina, Chile, Boliva, Peru, Columbia and Venezuela, among others. 

Rosa rugosa can grow in many environments, including both acidic and alkaline soils, in full sun to partial shade, inland or costal (it can survive salt spray), and in nutrient-rich or nutrient-poor soils. It can only survive in moderate temperatures but can survive in lower moisture environments--not in semi-arid or deserts though.  

On sandy soil, beach rose grows low and dense,
like a ground cover

Where the soil is rich, water is plentiful, and sunlight is dappled, it will grow into an impressive bush, as much as 6' high and over 10' wide, though about half that is more common. When the soil is poor, sandy or loamy, the available moisture is rich with salt, winds are strong, and sun is bright and there's no shade, beach rose grows low to the ground (rarely more than 18" high), and spreads into dense matts of overlapping plants. 

Leaf, thorn and stem features

The stems of beach rose are green and bendable for generally about the first year. They also don't develop thorns until after the first year. As the stems age they become a brown/red shade, then brown/grey and eventually a charcoal grey. The thorns also become denser. Unlike the hooked or curved thorns of cultivated roses, beach rose thorns are straight or conical. The thorns grow from all sides of the stem. 

Thorn features

Oddly pinnately compound leaves
(9 leaflets for this example)

Beach roses have oddly pinnately compound leaves that have 5 to 9 leaflets, with the overwhelming majority being 7. Compound leaves mean that the leaf is actually made up of multiple "leaflets" that might each appear to be individual leaves. Oddly compound leaves feature parallel pairs and one extra leaflet that sticks out at the end, opposite the leaf stalk.  

Unlike the leaves for cultivated roses, tea roses and native wild roses, which appear basically flat, smooth and glossy, the veins on beach rose leaflets are deeply creased, creating a textured, almost crinkled effect for the whole leaf. Beach rose leaflets are lime green when young or old and dark olive when mature and healthy. Leaflets do NOT have thorns on their back or the back of their veins. As with all roses, beach rose leaflets have serrated edges. 

Flower, fruit and seed features

White variant

Beach rose flowers range from white to deep magenta, even burgundy, but are most commonly a mid-tone bubble gum or "Barbie" pink. There are also specially bred, cultivated variations that are red, baby pink or even yellow. Flowers can grow individually but are more often found in clusters. The bloom is around 2" in diameter. Wild varieties generally have 5 thin, fragile petals but often loose some to strong coastal winds. Cultivated varieties often have more petals or even double rows of petals; wild and cultivated varieties might hybridize, so it's not unheard of to find 7-10 petal variants in the "wild". The petals surround a circular cluster of bright yellow stamens and feature a deep central crease that ends in either a point that sticks out past the main edge of the petal or a notch that dips into it. The flower calyxes are unobtrusively smaller than the blooms.

Fruit ripening progression

Fully ripe rose hip fruits

The fruits, called hips, start out hard and green, then yellow and slowly ripen to orange, dappled red and eventually fully red and waxy looking or even almost translucent. They generally aren't truly ripe until they are red and soft, though you can also ripen them off the plant. While the hips of native and cultivated roses are smaller than a pea, beach roses have large, fleshy fruits that are much easier to harvest and process. Each is generally around the diameter of a nickel to a quarter (3/4 to 1.25") at its widest point. Some plants have fruit that's wide than long and sometimes it's the opposite. The sepals form an elongated "crown" on the bottom of each fruit, away from the stem. The crown starts out as light green and soft but will turn brown and eventually dried out when the fruit ripens. The crown is essential for safe identification.  

The sepals that form an elongated "crown" or perhaps tentacles that come out of the bottom of the fruit are essential for identification.

Beach roses flower from mid spring to mid summer and start fruiting from late spring onward, so you can often expect to find plants with both flowers and fruits simultaneously, helping to aid your identification. 

Look-a-like plants

Small fruit of the common wild rose,
Rosa virginiana

Alright, so I think this is a first for me, but honestly, I don't think that beach rose has any American look-a-like plants, except for other roses (which are edible). And honestly, fruit size pretty much rules those out. Please remember, my blog is American and I don't know enough about other countries to be 100% sure of look-a-likes there. 

Here are the key things to look out for to ensure you are ruling out potentially dangerous plants:

• Thorns on the stems but not on leaves
• Leaves are oddly pinnately compound
• Fruit has a bottom "crown" of elongated sepals 
• 2" diameter blooms with a single row of 5-petals surrounding yellow sepals

You might want to look at pictures of hawthorn flowers and fruit which do look similar. While hawthorn is a tree, young specimens might resemble a shrub. Hawthorn flowers and fruit are edible and the plant is part of the rose family.

Continue reading for eating, foraging, nutrition, medical benefits and topical uses for beach roses.

Foraging: Deer mushroom identification

Latin name: Pluteus cervinus, Pluteus petasatus, Pluteus exilis and related species
Common names: Deer mushroom, deer shield mushroom, fawn mushroom
Season: Spring, summer, fall (late fall in the southern states)
Edible: Yes
Flavor: Acceptable
Medicinal: No
Nutritional: Unknown, most likely similar to other mushrooms

Identification difficulty: Novice

The deer mushroom is the largest and most commonly encountered member of the genus Pluteus. It's encountered frequently in both North America and Europe, probably contributing to its rather long history, as this mushroom was first documented in 1774.

The common names actually indicate one of the key types of identification of this mushroom, the tendency of the cap to shimmer with subtle reflectivity, similar to the silky sheen of a fawn's coat. But more on that in the identification section. 

Warning: This is NOT an easy mushroom to identify, and there are a fair number of dangerously poisonous and even deadly mushrooms that look similar. Close inspection to gill attachment is required for safe identification. Spore color is an important identification aspect of these mushrooms, so I recommend that if you are inexperienced with this mushroom, you wait until the gills turn pink OR do a spore print before consuming.

A note on Pluteus species

The mushrooms we call "deer mushrooms" and historically identified as "Pluteus cervinus" are actually 3 or more distinct species of the Pluteus genus, including Pluteus exilis and Pluteus petasatus. There might actually be more species that are still yet to be identified with DNA testing. These mushrooms can't really be distinguished by physical characteristics and must be separated by habitat. More on that below. From a foraging/edibility perspective they can be treated the same. 

Identifying deer mushrooms

When and where to find deer mushrooms

Deer mushrooms can be found throughout all states of the continental United States, though they aren't found in the northern halves of the northernmost states. Pluteus cervinus is generally found east of the Rocky Mountains, while Pluteus exilis is found on the west coast. However, Pluteus cervinus has also been reported infrequently in San Francisco, California. 

Like all Pluteus species, deer mushrooms grow exclusively on wood. The true "deer mushroom," aka Pluteus cervinus, grows on logs at the bases of dead or dying trees and on stumps. It seems to prefer well-decayed wood and even when growing on trees that are still alive, it will choose to fruit in areas that have lost their bark. The related Pluteus petasatus can also be found in wood chips. Occasionally, you will find deer mushrooms growing on buried wood or roots that seem to just grow from the ground. I recommend avoiding these specimens as it makes it harder to safely identify them. 

Deer mushrooms can be found spring, summer and fall, and even into mild winters in the Southern states.

Cap identification features

Deer mushrooms grow rather quickly and top out at large sizes. Caps start out as convex (like an umbrella) but are flat at maturity. Mature caps are 2" to 5.5" in diameter.  The mushrooms below grew from the tiny caps on the left to the 4.5" mature caps on the right in just 2 days.

As size is an important identification feature, you might want to avoid specimens with caps smaller than 3" in diameter. Unlike most mushrooms, the young "buttons" don't seem to be superior to mature specimens in either flavor or texture, so you don't miss anything by waiting. 

The caps range from medium brown to tan to taupe (greyish) to beige, often with pinkish or pinkish orange undertones. They also generally have an "ubmo" or bump in the middle of the cap. The center is most often darker than the edges, but that can be subtle. The caps also have subtle striations from the middle of the cap to the edges. 

When mature, the caps have a lot of shimmer / iridescence as seen in the video clip below. This is especially true if the caps became wet from rain or even just dew and then dried. 

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Gill & spore features

An essential identification feature of the deer mushroom is that the gills are separated from the stalk. They don't touch it, not even by a notch. 

Pink gills at the early stage of maturity. Notice how the gills don't touch the stem. 

When young deer mushrooms have white gills, but they quickly turn a pale pink or a pale peach, then darken to a dusty rose before eventually becoming a tawny taupe with pink undertones. By the time they become that dark they will most likely be buggy though. 

I recommend NOT harvesting the mushrooms until the gills are pink, as it's much easier to confuse them with other species when the gills are still white. 

When slightly more mature gills darken to a dusty rose. These are already a little past prime.

Officially, deer mushrooms have "pinkish brown" spore prints. Unofficially, there's a broad range of spore print colors for these mushrooms, varying from orange-brown to rusty-brown, to pinkish brown, brownish pink, cinnamon, peachy blush, coppery blush, and various shades of darker Caucasian skin tones. 

A natural rusty-brown spore print left on one mushroom
from the overlapping cap of another. 

The strip below shows some of the colors you might find. If you don't know how to do a spore print, check out my guide here. 

The flesh inside the cap is white and doesn't bruise blue or any other color when pressed, cut or otherwise damaged. 

Smell

Many people say that deer mushrooms smell faintly of radishes or watermelon rind. I'm afraid I have a terrible sense of smell and rarely smell what other people do. That said, I have picked up on those notes, very, very subtly, exclusively on very fresh specimens. Smell is not an essential identification feature, but I thought it was worth mentioning. 

Stem features

The stem of a deer mushroom is white, rather straight or with a slight taper towards the top. Stems are between 3" - 6" long and are subtly, vertically striated. They may have raised brown fibers, though I believe this to be much more common on P. exilis than P. cervinus. The stem has no ring, skirt or ring zone. 

The stem is narrow in relation to the size of the cap, being generally between 1/3 - 5/8 of an inch on mature specimens. The base isn't bulbous, nor does it look to be enclosed in an egg-like sac. Little to nothing is below the ground or the wood where the mushroom attaches, except some white fibrous "roots" that are really mycelium. 

As with the cap, the stem doesn't bruise blue or any other color when damaged. And just as a reminder, the gills do NOT touch the stem. 

Look-a-like species

To rule out potentially dangerous look-a-like species, you should wait for the mushrooms to mature enough that their spores turn pink, perform a spore print and double, triple check that the gills do not attach to the stem. Doing these things will rule out anything potentially dangerous, but we will still break down the look-a-likes below. 

Entoloma species - Potentially poisonous

There are over 2000 Entoloma species and are in many ways dead ringers for the genus Pluteus. Thus, larger Entoloma can easily be mistaken for deer mushrooms, including the most dangerous Entoloma, E. sinuatum. This mushroom is a violent sickener and has been linked to the passing of some who ingested it. Entoloma rhodopolium, shown above, is also a sickener, but hasn't been linked to any deaths. 

Like deer mushroom, Entoloma species have broad caps, relatively straight, narrow white stems, gills that start out white and turn pink and pink or peach spore prints. In fact, the Enoloma family are often called the "pink gills" as a common name.The most important way to rule out an Entoloma is to check the gill attachment. Entoloma gills will touch the stem; Pluteus are separate from it. 

However, Entoloma gills MAY be attached only by a notch, appearing separate at first glance. You must do a thorough inspection of the gills. 

The grey knight - Deadly poisonous

Photo by user Strobilomyces, curtesy of Wikimedia Commons. 
Used with permission, view the original here.

The so-called "Grey Knight" or "Grey Guard" mushroom, Tricoloma terreum, was once considered to be edible but we now know that repeatedly consuming this mushroom can lead to kidney failure and potentially death if life-long dialysis isn't performed or a transplant found. 

In overall shape, size and coloration, it can resemble the deer mushroom, having a grey-brown cap, a straight white stem, and white gills. The gills of T. terreum are attached to the stem, but they are attached by a notch, appearing to be separate. While the cap of the grey knight can't get as large as that of the deer mushroom, the largest grey knights will overlap in size with the smallest deer mushrooms. 

The best way to rule out the grey knight is by waiting to see if the mushroom's gills turn pink, or by performing a spore print. Tricoloma species have white spores and so their gills will remain white. 

Creamy Giant Puffball and White Wine Pasta

A couple of weeks ago, I had an absolutely amazing week, with multiple high points for all of my hobbies. First, my husband and I took a long weekend (Saturday-Monday) to central Texas, doing a lot of rock hounding at the famous Texas Slab in Kingsland, looking for material to keep the tumblers running. Along the way we visited one of our favorite distilleries, Flannigan's, and did some fossil hunting along the highway roadcuts outside of Gatesville. We ended up finding some nice (if incomplete) rudist fossils and blue chert in the Gatesville area and a whopping 61.8 lbs of rocks for tumbling, mostly a mix of cherts, iron-stained quarts, jaspagate (including a spectacular root-beer nodule) and--one of my favorites--hematoid quartz. We also found a few interesting rhyolites, mica-rich rocks, and others I couldn't identify.  

On our way back home we went hunting for Texas llanite, a rare porphyry stone that's only found on one ridge in central TX. The ridge (called the Llano uplift) represents the movements of the tectonic plates over a geothermic hotspot. Llanite is the result of volcanic activity creating rhyolite with bubbles in the stone that would later fill with blue quartz and feldspar--truly gorgeous. Most of the ridge is on private land, but there is just one public access point on TX state highway 16, pretty much exactly 10 miles north of the junction between 16 and 19 in the city of Llano. The rocks are hard, but after a few hours of grueling labor we had about 5lbs of llanite to bring home. All-in-all I achieved all my rock hunting goals, except we didn't find any petrified wood.  

Then on Tuesday, while raiding in World of Warcraft, I finally got the bow off of Prince Malchezaar in Karazhan, giving my hunter the best weapon she can use in this phase.
Then finally, on Thursday the 23, I got lost while trying to pick up Italian during my lunch break and ended up stumbling upon the absolute motherlode of Calvatia craniiformis, aka the skull-shaped giant puffball mushroom. 

When I say the motherlode, I'm talking an enormous fairy ring of the mushrooms with over a dozen full-sized specimens that covered an entire yard. Having received permission to harvest (and after confirming that no fertilizers had been used) I decided to take 4: The very largest, a nicely large one that seemed quite firm, and two youngish and very firm, softball-sized specimens. There we also a myriad of babies (roughly golfball-sized) that I left to grow up so I could harvest them the next week. 

Our First Puffballs in Texas

When my husband and I lived in NJ, puffballs were one of the most common mushrooms we'd encounter, though the giant puffballs (Calvatia genus) were rare. Mostly we would find the small gem-studded puffballs (Lycoperdon perlatum) or pear-shaped puffballs (Apioperdon pyriforme, formerly known as Lycoperdon pyriforme). We would frequently find dozens, nearly 100, in a single place. We found so many we rarely even photographed them, and--to be fair--this was before we owned smartphones. 

With regards to the giant puffballs, we'd only ever found a few. We found a cluster of 6 monstrously-sized Calvatia gigantea along NJ route 21. Since 21 is one of the most famously polluted areas in the Northeast USA, we didn't eat those. I found a fair number of Calvatia cyathiformis (purple-spored puffballs) over the years, but only ever felt a couple were in safe areas and received permission to harvest. 

However, since moving to Texas, puffballs, both small and large, have completely eluded us, though we did find several in while on Vacation in Puerto Rico. We had no way of cooking them or bringing them home and so let them be. 

About the Recipe

This dish is the evolution of one of my favorite meals I would cook while in college. In high school, one of my friends gave me a semi-gag gift, a lore-book called "Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home". The Inn of the Last Home was a tavern in the Dungeons and Dragons world of Krynn. Encompassing trivia, character backgrounds and, strangely, a cookbook section. The cookbook included recipes that--while not exactly world-class in terms of flavor--were generally very easy and quick to make, perfect for someone just starting out on their own. 

The recipe that inspired this dish was called "Shrimp Tarsis". The name was itself a joke, as in the lore of the books, Tarsis had once been a city on the sea, but a cataclysmic event sundered the world and left Tarsis inside a desert. The citizens adapted and converted their famous recipes to utilize fowl and game, rather than fish and shellfish. The original recipe called for turkey breast, but overtime, I adapted my own versions for mushrooms, particularly puffball mushrooms, though the change does make it take a lot longer to prepare. 

Creamy Giant Puffball & White Wine Pasta Recipe

Serves 4 as a main course | Approximately 45 minutes prep + cook time

• 1 lb pasta of your choice
• 6-8 cups of puffball mushrooms, cut or broken into rough shapes, approximately 3/4 of an inch by 1 inch by 1/4 inch
• 2 medium shallots, diced
• 1 cup semi-dry, drinkable white wine
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 tbs flour
• 1 stick butter, 8 tbs/8 pats
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tbs garlic powder
• 1 large lemon, zest and juice
• Salt to taste
• Olive oil

1. Start the pasta according to package directions. When you drain the pasta, reserve 2 cups of the cooking liquid. 
2. Mix the wine, lemon juice and lemon zest and set aside. 
3. Add 4 pats of butter and a glug of olive oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat. 
4. Once the butter and oil are hot, add the mushrooms and increase the heat to high. Continue to sauté the mushrooms, moving constantly, until they have released their liquid and are toasted brown all over, around 20 minutes. Add additional oil if needed but be circumspect. The mushrooms should release liquid making extra butter not needed. 
   
   
   
   
   
5. Once fully browned (see above) remove the mushrooms from the pan and set aside in a large bowl.
6. Add the minced shallot minced garlic and 1 tbs of butter to sauté pan and reduce temp to medium. Sauté until translucent and fragrant, stirring constantly.  
7. Once the aromatics are cooked through, pour the wine/lemon mix over them and deglaze the pan by using your wooden spoon to scrape up all the browned mushroom bits from the bottom of the pan. 
8. Bring the mix to a boil and boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat, and pour the shallot mix over the mushrooms. 
9. Add the remaining 3 tbs of butter to the sauté pan and melt over low heat. 
10. Remove from heat and whisk in the flour, a sprinkle of salt and garlic powder until smooth. Taste for salt and seasoning and adjust as needed. 
11. Pour in the heavy cream and the reserved pasta liquid and return to stove over medium-low heat. Sauté--stirring constantly, and I mean constantly--until you have a perfectly smooth, creamy sauce. 
12. Mix together the pasta, the sauce and the mushroom shallot mix over low heat and heat through. Serve immediately with a sprinkle of parsley (optional). 

How to identify superfood honeycomb fungus, perfect for beginners

Latin name: Favolus brasiliensis (and related species)
Common name: Honeycomb fungus, chicken breast mushroom
Season: Spring, fall, and cool, wet summers
Edibility: Entire mushroom
Flavor: Fair taste, very chewy texture
Medicinal value: Unknown
Nutritional value: Superfood status: protein, fiber, minerals, micronutrients

Identification difficulty: Beginner 

Favolus brasiliensis is commonly known in the United States as the honeycomb fungus and in South America as the chicken breast mushroom. It's a superfood you've never heard of that's cultivated for by the indigenous people of Brazil. It's incredibly easy to identify, with no poisonous look-alikes as long as some very basic features are checked off. 

Though F. brasiliensis is the type species for this genus, there are many other virtually identical species that can be found in the Americas, Asia and parts of Africa. One such is F. tenuiculus, the tropical honeycomb fungus, which might actually be what I found here, as this species also grows in Texas.

I have been looking for this mushroom for around 10 years, having first found it the fall of 2016 after we moved to Texas, but not realizing it was edible at the time. Despite finding it many times since then, it was always buggy, dried out, decaying or otherwise unpalatable. The relatively dry flesh of this fungus seems to make prone to going bad more quickly than similar mushrooms. 

Honeycomb fungus season and range

Unfortunately, the honeycomb fungus is not widely distributed in North America, being limited to the Gulf Coast states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and their near neighbors, Georgia, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Oklahoma. It might also be found in North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky. It is common throughout Mexico, Central and South America, though, as always, this blog is specifically focused on the continental United States. 

It has a distant northern cousin, the hexagon-pored polypore or Neofavolus alveolaris that I have eaten in the past and found to be not very good. The hexagon-pored polypore is also much smaller and rarely grows abundantly, making it much less worthy to harvest. But given what I've learned about F. brasiliensis as a superfood, I wonder if N. alveolaris is as well. 

I've found this mushroom in both the spring and the fall and it's reported in the summer as well, if the summers are cool and wet. 

Honeycomb fungus growing conditions

F. brasiliensis is found exclusively growing on wood that is either recently dead or almost dead. The logs or trees should still have all or almost all of their bark. Though I've encountered it 8 years out of 10 in Texas, I've only ever encountered it on the same tree twice. This was specifically on a barely living tree, leading me to suspect that the honeycomb fungus requires undecayed tissue to consume.  

Cap and stalk features

Note the very short "stem" with decurrent pores

The honeycomb fungus grows like a shelf off of the log or tree. Shelves are between 2" and 6" wide and as much as 4" from the tree attachment to the edge. The mushrooms often grow in overlapping clusters.

The mushroom is often stalkless/stemless but sometimes has a stalk that is very short as compared to the size of the mushroom, no more than around 1" long, often half that. 

The edges of the caps are either smooth half-circles or ovals, or have large, smooth scalloped frills.

When fresh, the honeycomb fungus is pure white all over. It is also vaguely translucent at the thin edges. As it ages it becomes first soft white and more opaque, then cream or off-white and eventually yellowish, especially at the edges. 

The mushroom has an unusual texture. It feels somewhat hard and brittle, like a hard rubber or a rubberized plastic.

Pore surface features

Honeycomb fungus has pores on the underside, not gills! This is the most important identification feature. The pores are white or off-white like the caps and they are shaped like somewhat like elongated hexagons--hence the name "honeycomb fungus." This is an organic organism though, and the pores are rarely even or clearly defined as hexagons. But they are always large and most often elongated. 

The spore print is white, but doing a spore print isn't required for identification.

The pores are "decurrent" which means they run down the stem, if there is a stem present. 

Honeycomb fungus identification checklist

So, to summarize the above your honeycomb fungus should have all of the following:

1. All white to cream color
2. Grows on dead or dying wood that still has all it's bark
3. Grows like a shelf off the wood
4. No stem or a stem that is very short (around 1" or less)
5. A pore surface on the underside--not gills!
6. Pores are shaped like elongated hexagons
7. Pores are decurrent--they run down the stem (if present)
8. Hard and brittle texture that feels somewhat like hard rubber or rubberized plastic

Honeycomb fungus nutrition information

As I said before, the honeycomb fungus is a superfood that you've never heard of. And, in most English mushroom hunting and identification books it's listed as inedible, or even poisonous! But that's largely due to a lack of understanding and a Western preference for mushroom taste over nutritional or medicinal properties. 

Most of the mushrooms eaten in Europe and North America are selected for their sweet, nutty, umami, spicy or meaty flavors, but in Asia, parts of Africa and South America, nutrition and/or medicinal qualities are as important as taste--sometimes even more so!

Recently, the government of Brazil did a study of the wild foods eaten by it's indigenous peoples, one of which was the honeycomb fungus, Favolus brasiliensis. You can read the report abstract here.

But I'll summarize some of the highlights here for you. The honeycomb fungus contains a whopping 27% crude protein--a much higher percentage than any commercially available mushroom. It also contains 17% crude fiber, 1.5% ether extract (fatty acids) and 1.7% minerals. While this is a lower percentage of minerals than some other mushroom varieties, there is an enormous range of micronutrients included. Alongside the nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, and potassium found in most mushrooms, we also find magnesium, sulfur, manganese, copper, zinc, cobalt and molybdenum. 

The protein, fatty acid and micronutrients that are more often found in meat and dairy, make this fungus especially interesting for vegans and vegetarians--though obviously only if it were ever grown commercially.