Foraging Cerioporus squamosus
Dryad’s saddle / pheasant back mushroom
Just check out this gorgeous specimen 😁😁
Foraged in Cheshire last weekend. This species pops up from summer onwards on trees and stumps. The cap has beautiful scales like a pheasant, and the underside has white pores that taper into a black base. It also smells like watermelon/cucumber/mealy - similar to St George’s mushrooms (Calocybe gambosa) to me!
The closest lookalike is Polyporus tuberaster, which is a smaller funnel shaped polypore with no black stipe and a less decorated cap.
This is edible too, but quickly turns leathery in texture - Young growths are best, but I find that if you can easily cut it with a knife, it’s probably okay, so the wide edge of this large was good! The tough parts could also be used for stock or powder. We had these two simply sautéed 😁
