King oyster

Pleurotus eryngii

Pleurotaceae

The steak of the oyster clan — a fat stem you sear, with the same gentle glucan bonus as its cousins.

Culinary mushroom. Cultivation is legal.

Parts used: Fruiting body
Traditional notes: Recovery foods · Everyday protein-adjacent vegetable
Grow · USDA 6b: Warm-temperate saprophyte; indoor bags A fruiting block or bag. In work: Jan · Feb · Mar · Apr · May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep · Oct · Nov · Dec
Harvest: When the cap is still small and the stem is fat.

Cooler than pearl oyster at fruiting often means fatter stems.
Harvest before the cap flattens.
Second flushes are smaller. Eat the first properly.

Safety

Known oyster-family allergy

Lore

Pleurotus eryngii, the trumpet that sears like scallop. It is a Mediterranean and West Asian mushroom that East Asian farms made ordinary. The stem is the prize, not the cap.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.