Fungus
Dryad's saddle
Cerioporus squamosus
Also known as: pheasant back, hawk's wing
A common edible bracket fungus that fruits on dead and dying hardwoods — distinctive large fan-shaped fruiting bodies with brown scaly upper surface and creamy white pore underside. Smells distinctly of watermelon-rind or cucumber when fresh. Common across Staten Island's hardwood-rich woodlands. Edible when very young; quickly becomes tough and unpalatable as the fruiting body matures.
Scientific
Cerioporus squamosus (formerly Polyporus squamosus) is a polypore bracket fungus producing large (4–24 inches across) fan-shaped fruitings on dead and dying hardwoods. Upper surface is creamy with brown scales arranged in concentric rings, vaguely resembling pheasant feathers (one of the common names). Pore surface is white-cream and noticeably large-pored compared to most polypores.
Distinctive smell when fresh: [[cucumber|cucumber]], [[watermelon|watermelon]] rind, or fresh-cut potato. The smell is preserved in older specimens to some degree.
Edible when young (firm, tender, with the [[cucumber|cucumber]]-[[watermelon|watermelon]] flavor evident in cooking). Becomes tough and leathery quickly — within days of emergence, most specimens are too tough to eat. Foragers learn to harvest only the youngest emerging fruitings.
Saprotroph and weak parasite — fruits primarily on dead wood but can attack stressed living trees.
On Staten Island
Common on dead and dying hardwoods across SI woodlands. Fruits primarily in spring (April–June) and again in fall (September–October). Often fruits in association with morels in spring — knowing dryad’s-saddle sites helps locate morel territory.
See also
Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.
- Member of: [[fungus]]
- Contained by: [[staten-island]]
Sources
- North American Mycological Association species accounts
- Northeastern bracket-fungus references
Rooted in life.
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