English: Branching Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus cornucopiae). This species is fairly similar to the Oyster Mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus (for which, see 643622).

While there are differences in colour and cap shape between the Oyster and the Branching Oyster, individual specimens of either species also vary in colour and cap shape as they age, and other features can therefore be a useful aid to identification.

One of the features helping to identify this as Branching Oyster is that several of the stems were fused together at their base; the mushrooms also had an aniseed-like odour that was quite distinctive.

These mushrooms were growing on a short, but broad, section of the trunk of a fallen broad-leaved tree; this was located at the upper (eastern) end of a meadow that slopes up towards a stone wall alongside the A813. The piece of wood is located only a few metres from the wall (in fact, I spotted the mushrooms while walking along the pavement on the other side of the wall).

This species is less common than the Oyster, P. ostreatus, which is found all year round. The Branching Oyster, P. cornucopiae, is found from spring to autumn (the ones in my image are fairly old specimens) on the cut stumps of deciduous trees; they favour oak and elm.