hen of the woods vs hen-of-the-woods

hen of the woods and hen-of-the-woods both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
hen of the woods	Yes	No	No	No
hen-of-the-woods	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, hen of the woods and hen-of-the-woods are synonyms defined as:

hen of the woods and hen-of-the-woods: large greyish-brown edible fungus forming a mass of overlapping caps that somewhat resembles a hen at the base of trees

Other synonyms of hen of the woods include Grifola frondosa, Polyporus frondosus.

hen of the woods (noun)	hen-of-the-woods (noun)
large greyish-brown edible fungus forming a mass of overlapping caps that somewhat resembles a hen at the base of trees	large greyish-brown edible fungus forming a mass of overlapping caps that somewhat resembles a hen at the base of trees