Biking in to work this morning I had to double back and get a shot of this fabulously surreal and colorful growth on the trunk of a curbside tree on Redondo just where it splits off of from La Brea south of Olympic (click to triplify):

I’m no arborist, botanist or fungitech, so I’ve relied on the internest to show me that this might be a particularly flourishing example of Laetiporus, a bracket fungus commonly called “Sulphur Shelf” (aka “Chicken of the Woods”). Hence the name, apparently it is quite edible with a “taste similar to lemony chicken” (via Wiki). I’ll take their word for it. I’ll also accept the assertion that while most tree fungi are potenitally destructive to their hosts owing to their parasitic nature, sulphur shelf apparently is not so voracious.

Related posts:

1. It Caught My Eye: Wood That I Knew!
2. SE7EN
3. It (They) Caught My Eye: I See Dead Trees
4. It Caught My Eye: Vendor @ 23rd & Union
5. Modern Decay: Redondo Beach Car Wash