Pleurotus (Oyster Mushroom)

The fruit body is a mushroom, virtually without a stem. The caps are fan-shaped and the narrow end is attached to the woody substrate. They can grow to over 10 centimetres in diameter but often are smaller.

The caps come in a variety of colours (often some shade of brown) and are smooth, often with inrolled margins. The gills are usually white.

Spore print: white.

They are wood decay fungi but sometimes grow from buried wood so that, at first glance, they appear to be growing from the ground.

One or more species of Pleurotus are commercially cultivated and some strikingly coloured strains have been produced (e.g. pink and yellow) and you are likely to see them sold as gourmet mushrooms.

Look-alikes

Omphalotus nidiformis (http://canberra.naturemapr.org/Community/Species/15540) has a similarly shaped fruit body but glows in the dark whereas species of Pleurotus don’t.