Red-belted Bracket

Fomitopsis pinicola

On rotten coniferous and deciduous wood. Spring, summer, autumn (winter).

Fruiting bodies perennial, large, hoof-shaped, 10–30 (50) cm across, usually solitary or several fused into one, attached to the substrate by the side. Surface with a hard, shiny, resinous, bare crust, furrowed by new zones added each year, pale yellowish, yellowish-orange, reddish-brown, chestnut; the margins pale yellowish, pinkish or orange, often, especially when young, with drops of liquid. Hymenophore white, cream, when old yellowish, lemon-coloured, brownish, in wet weather exuding drops of liquid. Flesh corky, smelling of musty wood and soured mushrooms. Grows in forests and parks on coniferous and deciduous snags, windfalls and stumps. Causes a brown rot. Very common, an active forest sanitiser. Of interest to physicians.