Pleurotus cornucopiae

Pleurotus cornucopiae is a species of edible fungus in the genus Pleurotus, It is quite similar to the better-known Pleurotus ostreatus, and like that species is cultivated and sold in markets in Europe and China, but it is distinguished because its gills are very decurrent, forming a network on the stem. The species name means 'of the Cornucopia' (Horn of Plenty), which is appropriate since the mushrooms are edible and sometimes take on a shape similar to a drinking horn. The original definition of this species, or basionym, was made by Jean-Jacques Paulet in 1793 as Dendrosarcos cornucopiae. At a time when most gilled mushrooms were lumped into genus Agaricus, Paulet invented genus Dendrosarcos, later Latinised to Dendrosarcus, for those having an excentric or missing stipe. In fact those fungi have not been found to be a closely related group, and today the name only has historical interest, though the taxonomic rules imply that it still needs to be recorded. In 1871 in his 'Führer in die Pilzkunde' ('Guide to Mycology'), Paul Kummer introduced Pleurotus as a genus, but the allocation of P. cornucopiae to it was only done later in 1910 by Léon Louis Rolland. The synonym Pleurotus sapidus due to Schulzer (1873) is sometimes seen The English name 'Branched Oyster Mushroom' has been given to this species. The following sections use the given references throughout. This mushroom is saprobic on dead wood and can also be a weak parasite. It occurs stumps and fallen trunks of oak, beech, elm, and other broad-leaved trees. Appearing from spring to late summer, it is distributed in the wild throughout Europe, where it varies locally between common and fairly rare. It is also reported from the U.S. and Mexico.