Medicinal Monday - Fanciful and Delicious Hen of the Woods!

Found in Europe, Asia, and the United States, especially in the Northeast, including Connecticut, the Grifola frondosa mushroom, commonly called "hen of the woods" has been prized by people from around the world for centuries. It is widely appreciated for its culinary and medicinal properties.

Watch A Foraging Video from IAIS

In the Institute's continuing video series on foraging and other pursuits of the Institute, watch Staff Educator, Griffin Kalin as he forages for and explains how to identify the hen of the woods mushroom. To watch the video click here.

About Hen of the Woods

This mushroom, also called Maitake grows on dead or dying trees and is usually found on the stumps or at the base of the tree. Grifola frondosa is a polypore, named because of the many pores that this group of mushrooms has on the underside of its cap and from where its spores are dispersed. Like all mushrooms, it is a parasite and most commonly feeds off a host tree, that is usually an oak but can also be other deciduous trees and sometimes conifers. The part of this mushroom that is eaten is the fruiting body composed of layers of ruffles resembling the feathers of a hen. The edible body is part of a much larger organism that resides underground as an extensive network of a fine filamentous vegetative structure called a mycelium. This subterranean structure sends up the fruiting body to release spores. People can harvest the fruiting body without hurting the mycelium which is why this mushroom can be found in the same place year after year. 

Medicinal and Culinary Uses

Native American communities all over America have known and used a variety of indigenous fungi, including the hen of the woods in every imaginable manner. The odor of this mushroom is pleasant and nutlike and is said to taste like chicken. It is thought that many Native American communities would grill or use this mushroom in a stew. Some mushroom uses were important and retained as a secret. Within certain Native Communities, sacred medicines were cloaked in secrecy in order to protect the medicine itself in order to assure the maximum strength and efficiency in working the desired cure. Today we know that the hen of the wood mushroom supports immune health and is noted for its antiviral effects. It contains a variety of beta-glucans, minerals, and amino acids. Recent studies have found that this mushroom has a unique set of sugars and proteins that can attack and suppress malignant cancer cells.

Did You Know

The Latin genus name Grifola is derived from a mythical Greek creature, the griffin, which has the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. This association was made because it was thought that the fruiting body of this mushroom resembled the feathers of an eagle or the mane of a lion.

Maitake was a highly valued commodity in feudal Japan, where local lords would trade their subjects an equivalent weight in silver for maitake. Thus, the name “dancing mushroom” stems from the Japanese commoners who would dance for joy when they found maitake, knowing they would be greatly compensated for their discovery. 

Approximately 2000 years ago, maitake was used as a Chinese medicine called Keisho and was used to improve the health of the spleen and stomach.

There are some similar-looking species that are toxic.