Chicken of the Woods
Chicken of the woods is unmistakable: broad, overlapping brackets of vivid sulphur-yellow and orange, soft and suede-like when fresh, fanning out from the trunk or base of a hardwood. It is a wood-decay fungus that causes a brown cubical rot in the heartwood of living oaks and other hardwoods, so while it recycles wood it can also hollow and weaken a standing tree over years.
For a gardener its main value is diagnostic. A tree fruiting chicken of the woods on its trunk is telling you it has internal heart-rot; large old specimens near paths or structures are worth having assessed for limb and trunk safety. It has no dangerous poisonous twin, but as with all bracket fungi, correct identification matters — note the bright colours, the shelving growth on wood, and the soft pore surface underneath rather than gills.
Brown cubical rot of the heartwood, producing bright yellow-orange shelving brackets on the lower trunk and base; over years the trunk hollows and structural strength is lost.
Enters through wounds and dead heartwood of mature hardwoods, especially oak; favoured by old age, injury, and prior decay.
There is no cure for the internal rot. Manage the tree, not the fungus: reduce end-weight on limbs, keep the crown pruned for safety, and have specimens near targets professionally assessed. Avoid wounding trunks and prune cleanly to limit new infection courts.
Breaks down hardwood heartwood, recycling standing and fallen timber. The same activity that recycles wood also hollows living trunks, so its role is double-edged in the garden.
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