Train wrecker or scaly sawgill. Wild edible mushroom identification

Identification difficulty: Novice

Behold Neolentinus lepideus, commonly known as the scaly sawgill or, in a somewhat antiquated use, the train-wrecker mushroom. If you are using older guidebooks (pre 1985) the Latin name will be listed as Lentinus lepideus. 

Though most commonly called the scaly sawgill, I simply love the drama of the name train wrecker, so that's what I'll be using here.

Just look at all that dense, bug-free mushroomy goodness

The train wrecker is edible, though often downplayed, invalidated and ignored. Called tough, woody, fibrous and bland, it's passed over for more popular late spring and early summer delights.

But that's a shame, because the train wrecker is, when SUPER fresh, not at all tough or woody and while it's not one of the most flavorful mushrooms, it's amazingly dense, meaty texture more than makes up for that fact. 

Also, this mushroom is only rarely attacked by insects.

The train wrecker can also grow quite large, providing quite a lot of food. Across North America it's rather uncommon, but can be regionally abundant.  If you are foraging in forests east of the Rockies that identify as "Piney Woods",  (New Jersey Pine Barens, Texas Piney Woods, etc), during the rainy season, there is a strong likelihood of encountering this mushroom, even if you aren't looking for it. 

N. lepideus can also be found in Western Europe, though apparently much less abundantly.

Train wrecker mushroom identification

Growth habits 

• Found exclusively on dead conifer wood or stumps, especially pine, most often east of the Rocky Mountains
• Note: The train-wrecker can also be found on cut logs and boards, both treated and untreated, especially west of the Rocky Mountains. These should not be consumed. The mushroom can pick-up toxins from the treatment and pass them on to you. Only eat mushrooms found growing on natural materials, in areas that seem unpolluted. 
• Grows individually or in clusters of caps from a single stem

Cap and size 

• This is a large mushroom. Caps range in diameter from 3" to 10". 
• Cap is white, beige, yellow or even orange in the middle, and generally lighter means fresher.
• The cap of N. lepideus has dark, chocolate- or amber- brown scales in the center. 

Gills 

• The gills for the train wrecker are often described as serrated, or saw-toothed, but I don't personally like this description, as it implies triangular shapes that are fairly evenly sized and distributed.
• To me, the gill edges are like torn paper, or the edges of very old books; they are jagged, irregular and often feature square shapes or small nicks.
• Gills are moderately spaced, which means there is generally a gill-space in-between two adjacent gills.
• The gills attach to the stalk (which is technically called a stipe), and are often decurrant (they extend down somewhat onto the mushroom stalk).

Stem/Stipe

• The stipe (mushroom stem) for N. lepideus is quite distinctive. 
• Stem features fibrous scales, facing upwards towards the cap (unusual), which peal backwards towards the base of the mushroom.
• Fibrous scales start out as white, but will turn dark brown quickly, especially at the base
• When broken or cut, the stem is like a thick, dense cotton in texture.
• The stem is pretty much the same thickness along the whole length, it doesn't really taper, and is only wider at the base if it joins to other mushrooms. 
• Clusters of caps can share a stem at the base, but the base may be buried in the wood, making stems appear separate.

Train-wrecker mushroom in the kitchen

Train wrecker mushrooms (front right), served with 
asparagus and chicken schnitzel with chanterelle gravy

The train-wrecker has a tough and fibrous stem/stipe, which should be discarded or pureed and mixed with other, more flavorful mushrooms. 

Alternatively, you could puree the stems with beans and seasonings for a vegetarian meat substitute that can be formed into patties. 

The stems of young mushrooms (still buttons), are generally tender enough to cook normally. 

The caps aren't the most flavorful, but, when super fresh, they have a wonderful meaty texture. They are dense and large, and provide a lot of food. 

Interestingly, the mushroom will become gold to orange upon cooking, especially when cooked with butter rather than oil.  

Caps lend themselves to any application that adds flavor:

• Marinade (squeeze to drain) and grill
• Dry-rub and grill
• Small strips or cubes with a flavorful breading or tempura and fry
• Stir-fry with a flavorful sauce
• Sauté and serve with gravy, cream sauce or cheese sauce 

If the mushrooms aren't super fresh, you should treat them like the stalks, and only use them pureed with other things.  If they are old I would avoid them entirely, except as survival food.

Look-a-like species 

Realistically, there isn't too much you can confuse the train-wrecker mushroom with, if you pay attention to all the details shown here, especially the growth on dead conifer wood. But I'm going to touch on a few things here:

• Neolentinus ponderosus, or the giant sawgill, is an even larger close relative of the train-wrecker.  It is most common in the Rockies and westward. It features similar appearance, though the cap is mostly tan or brown instead of white, cream or yellow. The giant sawgill is also edible, though even more tough and fibrous, requiring special cooking techniques.
• Lentinellus ursinus, Lentinellus vulpinus, and other Lentinellus species do grow on wood and do have scales (kind of) and have gills that are nearly identical to the train-wrecker, but they lack stems, specifically the kind of long, scaly stems shown here. Lentinellus species are non-edible (tasting so bad they might make you sick), but are not reported as poisonous. 
• Pleurotus mushrooms, also called oyster mushrooms, are superficially similar, but lack scales on the surface or stems. The closest would be the veiled oyster mushroom, Pleurotus dryinus, which can have some soft flaps of tissue, but not fibrous scales. All Pleurotus mushrooms are edible.
• Hypsizygus ulmarius (and Hypsizygus tessulatus), the elm oyster and beech mushrooms, are vaguely similar, but grow on elms and beeches, not conifers.  They also lack the distinctive scales of the train-wrecker. Hypsizygus tessulatus doesn't grow natively in North America. 
• The dryad's saddle (sometimes called a pheasant's back in the east) will grow on multiple kinds of wood, not strictly conifers. The dryad's saddle lacks a true stem and has pores under the cap/shelf, not gills.
• The scaly hedgehog (also called a pheasant's back in the west) grows on the ground, not on wood. It has soft teeth under the cap, not gills. 

Fun Stuff:  Train wrecker mushroom history

The train wrecker gets its high-drama name from the fact that it quite literally used to derail and wreck trains, causing a great deal of disruption and expense to the westward expansion of the United States. 

The U.S. push westward was powered by rail. Settlers may have traveled in covered wagons, but they generally settled within a 3 day ride of rail lines, at most. 

The trains provided trade goods that were otherwise impossible to get, like sugar, fabric, refined flour, boots, buttons, you name it. In exchange, the trains carried raw materials like wheat, cattle, fur, corn and eventually gold, back east to be processed and sold. 

Please note, I'm not trying to downplay the horrors of U.S. Western expansion, but just showcase the impact of rail on the early development of the United States. 

During the 1800s, the primary method of weather-proofing wood was wood-ash creosode. Made by destilling wood-ash into a thick tar, the resulting sludge was used to coat railroad ties, making them resistant to rain, insects and some fungi.

The train-wrecker mushroom was made of sterner stuff. 

Railroad ties were and are made of pine, and dead pine is the natural host for N. lepideus. As far as the mushroom was concerned, the U.S. rail network was a criss-crossed, continent-long buffet which not only fed the mushroom, it helped it spread. 

Easily contaminating railroad ties treated with wood-ash creosode, the train-wrecker infected and decomposed pine railroad ties for nearly a century.  When the ties broke down sufficiently, the rails could shift, leading to catastrophic derailment.

The only defense the mighty railroad companies had against the humble mushroom was sending out teams to manually inspect ties for infection or decomposition, and replacing said ties. This process was expensive and highly inefficient, with the slowdowns being more costly than the manpower. 

Today, most creosode used is coal-ash creosode, which is chemically different from wood-ash creosode, despite the common names. Coal-ash creosode is much more toxic, requires special licensing to make and apply, and is much more effective at preserving wood. Wood used outdoors is also treated with additional fungisides, making inoculation by N. lepideus far less common. As such, the use of the name train-wrecker is declining, and the mushroom is more often known as the scaly sawgill.