280 days of Urbpandemonium #155
As someone who has been calling himself "The Urban Pantheist" for several years, you can imagine my delight upon discovering there was a mushroom named for an American city. Laetiporus cincinnatus is a cousin to the sulphur shelf, but without that yellow underside that characterizes the other chicken mushroom (or if you must, chicken-of-the-woods). The fungus that produces cincinnatus has an even stronger taste for oak than its relative, which can be found on many other hardwoods and even sometimes conifers. Cincinnatus also specializes on the roots of the oak, nearly always appearing on the base of the tree, or in many cases appearing to come straight out of the ground. This white-pored mushroom is also considered a choice edible, but all Laetiporus should be consumed well-cooked and with caution. About 10% of those who eat it find it undigestible--I, for one, made myself very sick by eating a meal of undercooked chicken mushroom.
