Dryad's saddle or Chicken of the woods

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 fruiting body is bushy, with 5-30 overlapping fan-shaped caps on a common base. Individual caps are 10-30 cm across, 6-30 cm tall, flat and spreading, fan-shaped, fleshy. The surface is smooth or with fine felty fibers; in young ones it's glowing yellow-orange, like fresh sulphur, glossy in wet weather. Color: strikingly sulphur-yellow to orange-yellow, with a characteristic shift from a rich orange center to a yellow or cream margin. In old ones it fades to pale yellow and cream.

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.

Tube layer — fine sulphur-yellow pores on the underside (2-4 pores/mm). Color: sulphur-yellow to orange. Spore print: white.

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).

No distinct stem — the caps attach to the substrate by a broad base or a short lateral stem.

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.

Flesh: in young ones: tender, meaty, juicy, cream-yellow, characteristically reminiscent of chicken breast. In old ones: tough, leathery, fibrous, inedible. It doesn't change color when cut. Smell: characteristic, sourish-fruity-mushroomy with a hint of fresh cucumber, taste: mild, delicately mushroomy with a hint of chicken.

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

Characteristic sourish-fruity with a hint of fresh cucumber — a recognizable feature.