Anise Mazegill

Gloeophyllum odoratum – Inedible

On rotten conifers, especially spruce stumps, snags, windfalls. Spring, summer, autumn (winter).

Fruiting bodies large, perennial, 3-15 cm across, semicircular or cushion-shaped, sometimes several fused together. Surface uneven, velvety, felt-like, rough, from yellowish-brown to almost black, the margins thick, blunt, rounded, yellow, orange-yellow, sometimes greyish-yellow. Tubes pale yellowish, pores round, elongated, angular, labyrinthine, pale brown. Flesh pale brown, smelling of anise, with an unpleasant taste, corky. Characteristic features: fruiting bodies smell of anise. Grows in forests and parks, mostly on dead coniferous, rarely deciduous wood. Causes a reddish (brown) rot of the wood. Common. Saprotroph.