Shaggy Bracket / Spring / Summer / Autumn / Winter / Inedible

Repina Tatyana, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Justine Lee Hirten, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The Shaggy Bracket (Inonotus hispidus) is a bold and fascinating fungus often found on deciduous trees such as ash and apple across the UK. Its large, shaggy-looking brackets and rusty brown colour make it a distinctive sight, particularly in late summer and autumn. While its appearance might intrigue foragers, the Shaggy Bracket is tough, bitter, and inedible, making it more suitable for admiration than the kitchen.

Beyond its striking looks, this fungus plays a significant role in the ecosystem, breaking down deadwood and contributing to nutrient cycles.

In this post, we’ll explore how to identify the Shaggy Bracket, where it’s typically found, and why it’s best appreciated for its ecological importance rather than as a foraged food.

Scientific Name

Inonotus hispidus

Common Name

Shaggy bracket

Family

Hymenochaetaceae

Habitat and season

A parasite causing white rot on the trunks of living broadleaf trees mainly ash (Fraxinus) and apple (mallus)

This is a fungus that produces an annual bracket (fruiting body) so can be seen on the same host tree for a few years..

Starts to grow during the summer later turning black and falling off in autumn

Identifying Features of Shaggy bracket

This is a bracket polypore fungus that grows directly off wood usually as one or a double bulbous fruit body.

Shape

No stem, broadly attached to the host.

Young: easy to identify when young, has a bulbous inflated shape looking smooth like a fury peach on top with a lighter zone underneath. Oozes a clear to orange/red coloured liquid forming droplets.

Mature to Old: becoming less rounded and more irregular in shape and colour, as the bracket ages the zone between upper and underside becomes more pronounced and rugged/ wavy. eventually turning black and cracked with a dark golden orange inside.

Size

Can reach 30cm across

Upper-side

Bracket surface is furry with short dense hairs. Peachy to rust orange colour often in bands of both, usually darker orange where the fungus attaches to the tree.

Repina Tatyana, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Underside

Polypore- lots of tiny holes like sponge. Initially cream turning darker with age

Flesh- yellow/brown and fleshy when young, the tubes of the pores are approx 6-10mm deep,turning very dark and tough and brittle when old

Justine Lee Hirten, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Smell

Not distinctive

Spores

white

Uses/ edibility of Shaggy bracket

Inedible

Conservation Considerations

Can be quite common in areas where there is an abundance of its host trees such as apple orchards, rarer in Ireland Wales and Scotland.

Shaggy bracket Could Be Confused With

When old this is often confused with Chaga. An aged shaggy bracket does look remarkably alike but the host trees are different Chaga grows on Birch and in cooler climates.

When young it could be confused with Beef Steak fungus (Fistulina hepatica) due to the similar colour and the inflated shape. The difference is beef steak is not hairy at all and more red in colour. The flesh is also translucent with white fibers looking like animal flesh.

Oak polypore (Pseudoinontus dryadeus)- Is in the same family so incredibly similar, slightly lighter in colour but incredibly rare and on schedule 8 of the wildlife and countryside act so illegal to pick of cut a piece off. With there being no reason to pick either the Shaggy bracket or the Oak polypore, both can just be left to the beauty of nature.