Pleurotus populinus, the aspen oyster mushroom, is a gilled

Agaricales

The fungal order Agaricales, also known as gilled mushrooms , or euagarics, contains some of the most familiar types of mushrooms. The order has 33 extant families, 413 genera, and over 13000 described species, along with five extinct genera known only from the fossil record...

 fungus native to North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. It is found on dead wood

Wood-decay fungus

A wood-decay fungus is a variety of fungus that digests moist wood, causing it to rot. Some wood-decay fungi attack dead wood, such as brown rot, and some, such as Armillaria , are parasitic and colonize living trees. Fungi that not only grow on wood but actually cause it to decay, are called...

 of aspen and cottonwood trees (genus Populus). Although morphologically

Morphology (biology)

In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....

 similar to Pleurotus ostreatus and Pleurotus pulmonarius

Pleurotus pulmonarius

Commonly known as the Indian Oyster, Phoenix Mushroom, or the Lung Oyster, Pleurotus pulmonarius is very similar to Pleurotus ostreatus, the pearl oyster, but has a few noticeable differences. The caps of pulmonarius are much paler and smaller than ostreatus and develops more of a stem...

, it has been shown to be a distinct species incapable of cross-breeding. P. populinus is reported to be edible. Unlike P. ostreatus, which fruits in the autumn and winter, P. populinus fruits in late spring and summer.

External links

• Pleurotus populinus: The Aspen Oyster at MushoomExpert.com
• Biological Species in Pleurotus: ISG III. Pleurotus populinus at University of Tennessee-Knoxville Mycology Lab