Big fungus on a tree

[sprucebunny]

Saw this near a back road. Never seen one like this.

[SwampDonkey]

Wow  Whatever it is, it sure has a grip on that tree. 

[Mr Mom]

     Watch it doesnt eat you.







     Thanks Alot Mr Mom

[Mike_Barcaskey]

That is one I have never seen before. What species of tree is it on?
BTW it is not a "fungus", it is the fruiting body of a fungus.

[Dan_Shade]

it looks like a brain!

[SwampDonkey]

Looks like it may be a red maple. That little sapling to the left looks like tamarack. Looks like the conk is on an old wound.

[sprucebunny]

The tree to the left is a hemlock. The tree with the fungus is probably a maple...but maybe a beech I will have to go check 



Do you want a close up Should I touch it

[Mike_Barcaskey]

Don't touch it!
It'll enter through your oral passages, pupate in your stomach and burst forth through your chest in all it's alien hediousness!
Then you'll have to change your screen name to Ripley.

[sprucebunny]

Thanks, Mike, .... that's what I thought

[Roxie]

It looks like a form of mushrooms to me.  Some of them grow in shelf like layers.

Get a stick and hit it...........let us know how it turns out.   

[Roxie]

I did a quick check and found this:

http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/jul2001.html

Chicken mushrooms or Laetiporus .... does it look like this?

[sprucebunny]

Could be. That article says there is a great variation in form but they don't say what size is usual. Tastes like chicken

The one in the pictures is about 14" across and 12" high !!!

[Mike_Barcaskey]

I have picked and eaten what I call "hen of the woods", same as in the link. The big difference between that fungi and the one in your original photo is position on the tree. the edible type, "hen of the woods" is a stump mushroom, always growing at or near the root collar.
I don't think that is what you found.

[sprucebunny]

It's in a huge BEECH tree. Right next to the biggest ash I've ever seen.
Here's a profile shot.



I poked it with a stick it's rubbery.

[Tom]

Be careful,Sprucebunny

I saw some Documentaries, when I was younger, that will make you think twice before you bother that thing.  One was Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the other was It came from Outer Space.   I know they are true and not theory because I saw them at the movies.  You could punch that thing when it matures some and it might jump right off of that tree and grab you by the neck and run tendrals into your brain and spinal cord.

Those alien being always seem to be more active at night.  Are your doors locked?  Not that it would stop them.  they showed some of them coming in under doors and sliding in under windows.

Make sure you give constant reports of your where-a-bouts so we will know whether to alert the War Department.  Creepy sounds in the house and thumps on the roof might be the only warning you get. 

[Mike_Barcaskey]

sprucebunny, when you turn into an alien host you will have no more need for your chainsaws and other logging stuff.
Can I have it all?

[Modat22]

thats protoplasm from a visiting wood sprite ghost. Don't cut her tree down or she'll turn you into the mustache on a slobbering bull mastiff 

[Mike_Barcaskey]

yeah and Modat knows what he's talking about. His dog is already posessed! 

[Modat22]

yeah and Modat knows what he's talking about. His dog is already posessed! 

Yea and that was from erm... Marking his territory...

[sprucebunny]

Thanks for your concern, everyone The only weird sounds around here is squirrels 

I  poked it very gently 

Tom, you couldn't pay me to see any of those movies  Just too DanG scary !!!!

Mike, your gonna have to share the logging stuff. I don't think your wife will let most of it lurk around in your yard