Beefsteak fungus or Dryad's saddle

The fruiting body is tongue-shaped or fan-shaped, side-attached, joined to the substrate by a short lateral outgrowth. Size 10–20 cm (sometimes up to 30) across, 2–6 cm thick. The color is bright red, purplish red, dark blood-red; young mushrooms have pink and orange tints, old ones are dark brownish red. The surface is rough and coarse, with tiny papillae.

Cap 10-50 cm across (sometimes up to 70!), fan-shaped to semicircular, flat and spreading. Young caps have a slightly inrolled margin; older ones have a drooping, wavy margin. The surface is matte, with striking brown scaly concentric patterns on a yellowish-cream background. Base color yellowish cream, ochre-cream, the scales dark brown to chestnut brown, densest at the center. Mature caps show a clear radially striped pattern.

The hymenophore is tubular, but unique among all mushrooms: each tube stands separately, not fused to its neighbors — like a bundle of thin tubes. Yellowish at first, then reddish brown. The pores are small and round. They darken when pressed.

Tubular hymenophore — large white pores on the underside of the cap (1-3 mm, notably large for a polypore), running down the stem. Color white to cream. Spore print white.

There is no stem, or it is very short and lateral, a small outgrowth at the base of the fruiting body. The mushroom attaches directly to the tree bark.

Stem 3-7 cm tall, 1.5-4 cm thick, lateral, off-center, short and thick. Color whitish at the top, dark brown to blackish at the bottom (hence the typical "black tail" at the base).

The flesh is very juicy, filled with a clear red liquid, with whitish veins (hence the comparison with liver). The texture is fibrous, like muscle meat. The cut surface shows a marbled pattern. In old mushrooms it becomes tough and sour.

Flesh when young: tender, soft, white, with a distinctive cucumber-and-watermelon smell; when old: very quickly turns tough, leathery and useless in cooking. Does not change color when cut.

Smell faint, sourish, with a note of fresh oak inner bark. Taste distinctive — sourish, with a lemony, meaty tinge. A slight acidity is a normal trait of the species.

Distinctive smell of fresh cucumber and watermelon in young specimens — a key diagnostic feature. In old ones it is faint and neutral.