MycoNote is free, with no paid subscriptions. It runs on readers’ support. The site lives thanks to readers. Support the project →Support MycoNote →
Updated
The quickest way to tell turkey tail from false turkey tail is to turn a bracket over: turkey tail has tiny pores underneath, like pinpricks, while false turkey tail (hairy curtain crust) is completely smooth and yellowish below. From above both are zoned and hairy, so the underside is where the answer is.
Turkey tail (Trametes versicolor), once called the many-zoned polypore, and hairy curtain crust (Stereum hirsutum) grow on the same stumps and fallen branches all year round. Neither is a food mushroom: both are thin and tough as leather. We found no reports of anyone being poisoned by hairy curtain crust, so a mix-up isn't dangerous. But if it's turkey tail you're gathering, you'll want the right fungus.
Pores or a smooth underside. Turkey tail has true pores, 3–6 per millimetre: you can see them with a hand lens and often with the naked eye. Hairy curtain crust is smooth underneath, with no pores, gills or teeth. This is the feature that decides it.
Underside colour. Turkey tail is white to cream below, turning pale brownish with age. Hairy curtain crust is yellowish, ochre or yellow-brown, fading to greyish brown as it ages or dries.
Colours on top. Turkey tail can be white, grey, blue-grey, brown or almost black, and its margin is always the palest band. Hairy curtain crust is warmer: yellow, orange, tan or brown. The sources don't describe blue or black tones on it. Treat this as a helper, since brown turkey tails look a lot like Stereum.
How it sits on the wood. Hairy curtain crust often spreads partly flat over the bark, its smooth underside running straight onto the wood, and it often crowds out of cracks in the bark. Turkey tail grows as separate thin brackets, in tiers or rosettes.
Doesn't work
Zones and hairs on top. Both have them, which is exactly why people mix them up.
Doesn't work
A pale edge. Turkey tail's margin is the palest band, but hairy curtain crust also gets paler towards the edge.
Doesn't work
A green tinge. Old brackets of both turn green with algae.
Doesn't work
Where and when. Both grow on dead broadleaf wood, mostly oak and beech, and both can be found in any month.
Turn one bracket over. Tiny holes mean turkey tail; a smooth surface means Stereum.
If you're unsure, use a hand lens: turkey tail pores are close together, 3–6 per millimetre.
Compare the underside colour: white or cream on turkey tail, yellowish or greyish brown on Stereum.
Scratch the underside lightly with a fingernail. Turkey tail doesn't change. Yellowing curtain crust turns yellow where scratched, and hairy curtain crust sometimes darkens to yellow. A yellow mark points to Stereum, but no mark proves nothing.
In Britain and Ireland, "false turkey tail" almost always means hairy curtain crust, and sometimes its close relative, yellowing curtain crust (Stereum subtomentosum). The name originally belonged to Stereum ostrea, a species described from Java, which is barely recorded in Europe. Whichever Stereum you have, the check is the same: no pores.
Hairy curtain crust isn't known to be poisonous. It's simply inedible, too thin and tough to eat, and we found no poisoning reports for it. That only covers the two species on this page, though: plenty of other brackets grow on the same logs, so a smooth-backed find shouldn't be treated as turkey tail.
The extracts studied for decades as an add-on to chemotherapy, PSK and PSP, mainly in Japan and China, were made from turkey tail itself. None of that research applies to Stereum. Even for turkey tail, a home-made tea or a shop supplement isn't the same thing as those extracts, and it doesn't replace treatment. What's known about its medicinal use, and its legal status in the UK and EU, is on the turkey tail page.
Both are very common and widespread across Britain and Ireland, on dead oak, beech and other broadleaf wood. The brackets last a long time, so you can find them in any month, but both are recorded most often from autumn to early spring, and least in summer. So on a winter walk, when you spot a stump covered in striped brackets, turn one over before you decide.
| Characteristic | Hairy curtain crust | Turkey tail |
|---|---|---|
| Use | Hairy curtain crust: Not eaten | Turkey tail: Not eaten, Medicinal |
| Size | Hairy curtain crust: Small (up to 5 cm) | Turkey tail: Medium (5–15 cm) |
| Colour | Hairy curtain crust: Yellow, Orange, Brown | Turkey tail: Mottled, Brown, Grey, White |
| Cap shape | Hairy curtain crust: — | Turkey tail: Flat, Irregular |
| Cap surface | Hairy curtain crust: — | Turkey tail: Velvety |
| Taste | Hairy curtain crust: Mild | Turkey tail: Unknown |
| Hymenophore | Hairy curtain crust: — | Turkey tail: Pored |
| Stem | Hairy curtain crust: — | Turkey tail: Absent |
| Growth habit | Hairy curtain crust: In clusters from one base | Turkey tail: In clusters from one base, In groups |
Same in both: edibility class, season, smell, flesh colour change, substrate, nutrition type, partner trees.