Blushing bracket or Hairy curtain crust

There's no stem: the bracket is semicircular, kidney- or fan-shaped, flat or slightly convex, often with a hump where it's attached, 5 to 15 cm across, up to 20 cm, and 1 to 4 cm thick. It grows singly or in tiers, and sometimes in rosettes on top of logs.

Young brackets are whitish or leather-yellow on top, then reddish brown, brick red, greyish or blackish. The surface has concentric zones and grooves, radial wrinkles and small warts, mostly near the base. The margin is paler. Old brackets darken and can last for years.

The fruiting body is 1-4 cm across, thin, leathery, spatula- to fan-shaped, attached by the side or back. The upper surface is densely covered with short (up to 0.3 cm) stiff hairs, like felt. The colouring is distinctly zoned, or banded: alternating yellow-orange, ochre, rusty-brown and grey-brown concentric zones. Older areas turn grey-brown. In young fruiting bodies the margin is bright yellow-orange and sharp.

The underside starts white to cream, as if frosted, then turns beige, grey-brown and dark brown. When pressed or scratched, the fresh underside blushes pink to red, then turns brown.

The pores vary a lot: round near the base, then slits and mazes, and almost gill-like towards the edge, 0.5 to 1.5 mm across. The spore print is white.

Smooth, with no pores, gills or spines, which is typical of the genus Stereum ("stereum" from Greek stereo, "hard, smooth"). The underside is yellow-ochre when young, brownish grey with age. The spore print is white.

There's no stem: the bracket is attached to the wood by its side.

No stem. The fruiting body is attached to the substrate by its side or back edge (sessile).

The flesh is corky and leathery, hard when dry, wood-coloured, pale rusty or brownish, fibrous when broken and up to 2 cm thick.

The flesh is very thin, leathery, tough and brownish yellow. It's useless in the kitchen, like cardboard. The smell is faint and neutral.

The smell is indistinct.

Faint, neutral, with no notable features.