Named for its fan-like shape and its beautiful colors, the eye-catching turkey tail fungus (Trametes versicolor) can be found year-round throughout the Bay Area. In fact, it is the mushroom with the highest number of community science iNaturalist observations in the Bay Area! The turkey tail does not have gills on its underside, but rather pores.
You can generally find this mushroom growing in shelf or rosette shapes on fallen hardwood logs, where it breaks down the rotting wood for nutrients. Many societies value this mushroom for its medicinal qualities.
Turkey tail can be confused with a few other shelf fungus species that grow in the region, most often in the Stereum family. The pores are the best way to tell a turkey tail from a false turkey tail. A turkey tail’s underside will always be bright white and full of pores, while the false turkey tail’s (Stereum ostrea) underside will be greyish or yellowish and leathery, with no visible pores.
