About
These beautiful shell like mushrooms grow horizontally out of the dead and dying wood of deciduous trees, especially beech. They are a saprobe, which means they live off decaying organic matter, and are specialists in breaking down some of nature's toughest materials - cellulose and lignin. In the process, they release vital nutrients back into the ecosystem.How to identify
This oyster starts out a beautiful grey blue colour with a cap edge that rolls slightly inward, gradually opening out turning grey brown and wavy with age. Look underneath, and you'll find they have crowded whitish gills that are decurrent - meaning they run right from the cap edge and down the stem. In this case, the stem is rudimentary, a short (often fluffy) number that's only a few centimetres long.A handful of other oyster mushrooms exist, but are often much paler in colour. If they're much smaller, they're likely to be the oysterling family. A similar, all white version known as angel's wings is a great find as it's quite rare (and poisonous)!