Dyer's mazegill or Shaggy bracket

The fruit body is round, fan-shaped or a rosette, flat or shallowly funnel-shaped and often lobed, 10 to 30 cm across and 1 to 5 cm thick. It can grow in two or three tiers or as several fused together, and it engulfs needles, twigs and grass.

The surface is velvety or felty, later almost bald, lumpy and concentrically zoned. Young ones are sulphur yellow to orange; then the centre turns rusty to dark brown while the rim stays bright yellow for a while. Old ones are dark brown to almost black, dry and light.

There's no stem: the bracket is broadly attached, semicircular, hoof-shaped or cushion-like, 10 to 25 cm across, sometimes up to 35 cm, and up to 10 cm thick. It grows singly or in tiers of two or three. The margin is thick and rounded when young, becoming thinner.

Young brackets are bright rusty orange to reddish yellow on top, densely velvety and bristly. Later they turn rusty to dark brown, almost bald, rough and cracked, and finally black, hard and brittle. Old brackets often hang on the tree all winter, and when they fall they leave a blackish mark on the bark.

The pores are large and irregular, 1 to 3 per mm, angular and wavy like a maze. They're yellow, greenish yellow or olive at first, then rusty and dark brown, and darken when touched. The tubes are shallow, usually under 1 cm, and often run down the stem.

The spore print is whitish to pale yellow.

The pores are cream to yellowish brown, later rusty, 2 to 3 per mm, and darken when touched. The tubes can be a few centimetres long. Young brackets sometimes weep clear, yellowish or reddish droplets from the pores and margin.

Sources disagree on the spore print colour: from whitish to yellowish brown.

The stem is short and thick, up to 6 cm long and 2 to 5 cm wide, brown and velvety, central or off-centre and tapering downwards. On stumps the bracket can have no stem.

There's no stem: the bracket is broadly attached to the trunk or branch.

Young flesh is soft, spongy, wet and yellow-orange to rusty. Old flesh is dry, fibrous or corky, brittle and very light.

Young flesh is soft, spongy, wet and radially fibrous, yellowish ochre to light brown. Old flesh is dry, hard, brittle and dark brown to almost black. It turns black with KOH.

There's no noticeable smell.

The smell is indistinct.