Description

One of the most well studied health promoting mushrooms, turkey tail grows in abundance around the world. Woody and leathery texture, turkey tail is not a choice edible mushroom but it is revered for its beneficial properties in many traditional healing systems. The fruiting body displays stripes of colors ranging from red, brown, and grey, to several variations in between. Combined with their wavy top, these mushrooms resemble the tail feathers of a turkey leading to its convincing common name, turkey tail.

Trametes versicolor is found all over the world growing naturally throughout forests, especially thriving in clusters on hardwood stumps in deciduous woodland habitats. Turkey tail is a polypore mushroom with a pore surface that has an off-white to light brown color and a white to yellow spore print. The shape of the fruiting body is typically fan-shaped, triangular, or round and grows in tiled layers. The offset cap has a fuzzy top surface, resembling velvet. The mushroom’s species name, versicolor, translates to “several colors” which aptly describes this mushroom. Turkey tail mushroom is hailed for its wellness supporting qualities which may be in part due to the amount of beta glucans found in the mushroom.

There is no expiration date.