Dyer's Mazegill

Phaeolus schweinitzii

Coniferous forests, on roots of pines, spruces, larches. Spring, summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies annual, large, in the form of round or semicircular, fan-shaped, fleshy caps, solitary or several fused together; surface felty, bristly, uneven, furrowed, faintly zoned, yellowish-brown, brown, chestnut-coloured. Tubes 2-7 (10) mm long, pores round, angular, elongated, brownish, pale brown, tobacco-coloured. Flesh soft, watery, orange, yellowish-brown.

Characteristic features: fruiting bodies soft, yellow, yellowish-brown, the tubes turn brown and darken when pressed.

Grows in forests and parks at the root bases of conifers, more rarely on their stumps and windfalls. Causes a brown rot of the wood. Biotroph, saprotroph. Protected.