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. 

Beginner foraging: old man of the woods mushroom identification

Identification difficulty: Beginner

Meet the old MEN of the woods, "Strobilomyces strobilaceus" (though most books will use the term Strobilomyces floccopus) and Strobilomyces confusus. 

Old MEN, you ask? Yes, in the Americas the common name "old man of the woods" is often used interchangably for two different species of Strobilomyces that look rather similar. And there is still a different "old man of the woods" in Europe and Asia.

Confused yet? The naming gets worse.

The Latin name Strobilomyces strobilaceus applies only the European species. DNA studies have shown that the American mushrooms--previously believed to be identical--are genetically different, but a Latin name hasn't been chosen yet. 

From a foraging and edibility standpoint, none of this matters. All species share the same identification features, but if you're curious about species naming, check out the taxonomic confusion section at the end of this post. 

Old man of the woods identification

• A cap and stalk mushroom 
• Pores under the cap instead of gills.
• Mushroom cap is light gray with dark gray to black textural elements. Textures can resemble large gray/black "flaps" that hang down (S. strobilaceus), or small gray/black pyramids that stick up (S. confusus). 

• Pore surface is pale gray to charcoal gray to black. 
• Pores aren't round, instead they are angular polygons, often elongated.

• Stem is also dark gray or black and textural, with dark scales along most of the length.
• Entire mushroom bruises pink or red when bruised or cut. This color slowly fades to gray or black. 
• Found in the woods, growing terrestrially (on the ground) or on logs so well-decayed they are basically soil.

That's really all there is to know about identification, this really is an easy group of mushrooms to ID.

Foraging: how to identify turkey tail mushrooms for natural, cancer-fighting medicines. 4 simple steps

The medicinal turkey tail mushroom is in the foreground here, showcasing it's iconic banding and zoning.

 Identification difficulty: Beginner 

Hi everyone!

Last year I posted about how to dry turkey tail mushrooms and make a cancer-fighting and immune-strengthening tea.

Now I'm back, because new research has come up in the past year, and I can provide updated information on just how turkey tails (Trametes versicolor) are performing in their clinical trials. (Here's a hint: they are doing well) and also science has given us more information on dosage and potential adverse reactions. (There aren't many). I will cover the updated research in a future post.

But for now, I want to show you how to identify Trametes versicolor (previously known as Coriolus versicolor) on your own, if you find it in the woods. Right now, preparations of this mushroom are only produced by a few suppliers, and are therefor expensive. However, this is a widely-distributed fungus, and frequently fruits abundantly, so there is no reason why you can't forage it on your own for free.

Special note on Turkey Tails: I have listed this ID as a beginner level difficulty. In fact, it can actually be quite hard to tell Trametes versicolor from some other varieties of Trametes. However, none of these similar looking mushrooms are poisonous, which is why I still consider this a beginner level mushroom.

So, let's talk turkey!