Oak bracket or Lacquered bracket

The fruit body has no stem and forms a thick cushion, half-moon or shapeless lump, 10 to 30 cm across, occasionally 40 cm, and 5 to 15 cm thick. It often grows in several tiers.

Young brackets are cream, buff or yellowish and finely velvety, with a thick, rounded margin that weeps amber drops. Later they turn rusty brown, bald and lumpy, pitted where the drops have dried, and finally almost black and cracked.

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 tube layer is up to 2 cm deep. The pores are tiny, round then angular, 4 to 6 per mm, cream-yellow to greyish, later ochre and brown, and slowly bruise brown. Drops can form on the pores too.

The spore print is pale, whitish to yellowish.

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's no stem: the bracket sits directly on the trunk base, root flare or roots.

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 yellow-brown, rusty or reddish brown, zoned and up to 10 cm thick. It's soft, spongy, fibrous and wet when young, then corky.

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.

Old fruit bodies have a strong, unpleasant smell. The taste is bitter.

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.