Shaggy bracketInonotus hispidus

The shaggy bracket (Inonotus hispidus) is a thick, rusty-orange bracket fungus with a hairy top that grows on the trunks of living broadleaved trees. Its Latin name hispidus means bristly or shaggy. Young brackets often weep droplets of clear or reddish liquid, and old ones turn black and hang on the tree into winter. It's a parasite that causes heart rot, so it matters for garden and street trees.

How do you identify a shaggy bracket? It has no stem and is broadly attached, semicircular, hoof-shaped or cushion-like, usually 10 to 25 cm across, sometimes up to 35 cm, and up to 10 cm thick, growing singly or in tiers of two or three. Young brackets are bright rusty orange to reddish yellow on top, densely velvety and bristly, with a thick, rounded margin. With age they turn rusty and then dark brown, almost bald and cracked, and finally black, hard and brittle. Underneath, the pores are cream to yellowish brown, later rusty, 2 to 3 per mm, and darken when touched. Young flesh is soft, spongy, wet and fibrous, yellowish ochre; old flesh is dry, hard and dark brown. Sources disagree on the spore print colour, from whitish to yellowish brown.

Where does it grow? On the trunks and big branches of living broadleaved trees, often several metres up. It gets in through wounds such as broken branch stubs, frost cracks and damaged bark. It's mainly found on ash and apple, also on London plane and occasionally on poplar, beech, oak and sycamore. Fresh brackets appear from summer to late autumn, mostly from late summer to mid-autumn, and old black ones stay on the tree through winter.

Is the shaggy bracket edible? No, it isn't eaten in Europe: old brackets are tough and woody. We found no reports of poisoning, but that doesn't make it safe. In China it's used in folk medicine, and substances from it have been studied in the laboratory and in mice. There's no evidence that it treats or prevents any disease in people, so it isn't a medicine.

Is it dangerous to the tree? It causes a heart rot that makes the wood brittle, so branches or the trunk can snap, especially on ash. London plane holds out longer, even when a cavity forms. If you find it on a tree near a house, road, path or playground, ask a qualified arborist to assess the tree.

How is it used for dyeing? It contains a brown pigment, hispidin, named after this very species, and a yellow one, hispolon. Middle-aged brackets give burnt orange to golden yellow on alum-mordanted wool, and dark khaki green or brown with iron. Old black brackets give weak colours.

What can you mistake it for? The oak bracket also weeps droplets, but it grows at the very foot of an oak or on its roots, and it's pale cream, not hairy, with smaller pores, 4 to 6 per mm. Beefsteak fungus is reddish brown with a smooth, sticky surface and bleeds red juice when cut. Chicken of the woods forms thin, smooth tiers with bright sulphur-yellow pores and white, crumbly flesh. Dryad's saddle is cream with brown scales and a short dark stem, and appears in spring. Dyer's mazegill is also rusty and velvety, but it grows at the foot of conifers.