Beefsteak fungus or Lacquered bracket

The fruiting body is tongue- or fan-shaped and side-attached, joined to the substrate by a short lateral outgrowth. It's 10–20 cm (sometimes up to 30) across and 2–6 cm thick. The colour is bright red, purplish red or 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.

The cap is kidney- or fan-shaped, usually 5–15 cm across, occasionally up to 25 cm, and 1–4 cm thick. Sometimes it is almost round, with the stem attached closer to the centre.

The surface is glossy, as if varnished, with concentric growth zones. The colours run from yellow and orange near the margin to red, chestnut and purplish brown in the centre, and old caps darken almost to black. In young specimens the growing edge is white or yellowish. The cap is often dusted with brown spores, which make it look matt until rain washes them off.

The tubes are unique among mushrooms: each one stands separately, not fused to its neighbours, like a bundle of thin straws. They're yellowish at first, then reddish brown. The pores are small and round and darken when pressed.

The underside is covered in pores. They are small and round, 4–6 per millimetre, white or cream in young specimens, turning tobacco brown with age and darkening when pressed. The tubes are 5–20 mm long, white at first, then ochre.

The spore print is brown to reddish brown. That same brown dust often coats the top of the cap and nearby leaves.

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.

The stem is attached at the side or off-centre, usually 5–15 cm long, sometimes 20 cm or more, and 1–3 cm thick. It is lacquered like the cap, red-brown to purplish black, hard and often curved. In some specimens the stem is barely there.

There is no ring and no volva. When the fungus grows from a buried root, the stem comes straight out of the ground.

The flesh is very juicy, full of a clear red liquid and streaked with whitish veins (hence the liver comparison). It's fibrous, like muscle meat, and the cut surface shows a marbled pattern. Old mushrooms turn tough and sour.

The flesh is corky: spongy in young specimens and almost rock hard in mature ones, except at the growing edge. It is pinkish buff, ochre or light brown, doesn't change colour when cut and has no juice. The taste is bitter or almost indistinct.

The smell is faint and sourish, with a note of fresh oak inner bark. The taste is distinctive: sourish, with a lemony, meaty edge. A slight acidity is normal for the species.

The smell is faint and unremarkable, and in many specimens barely noticeable. Smell won't help you identify it; look for the lacquer, the side stem and the pale pores.