The Autumn forest is brightened with the delicate, translucent, caps cascading from the surface of dead hardwood trees. This is a mushroom that lives up to its name — it looks, smells, and tastes like oysters.

Oyster Mushrooms are wide and fleshy. They can be white, gray or brown. The caps can be up to eight inches wide and are usually in a semi-circle shape.

The white, hairless gills (which become yellowish with age) descend the short, stub-like, lateral stalk.

They grow throughout North America. If it rains enough and it’s not too hot or cold, you can find them during anytime, although they’re most commonly seen around this time of year.

Oyster Mushrooms, like other fungi, are good food and habitat for small creatures, such as insects. These small animals also help spread spores (like seeds of a plant) so that new Oyster Mushrooms can grow in new places.

Larger animals like to eat this fungi too, like Eastern Box Turtles, White-tailed Deer and Eastern Gray Squirrels. They are also an edible favorite among wild mushroom collectors and are cultivated on farms for human consumption.

Third Eye Herp
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