Saprotrophic on dead broadleaf wood, especially beech trunks and stumps

Inedible — tough, corky and without culinary value

• ▸ Effused-reflexed brackets and crusts on dead hardwood, grey-brown to fuscous
• ▸ Pore surface whitish to grey-brown with angular pores that become irregular, maze-like and cracked with age
• ▸ Soft and tough when fresh, drying hard and brittle; paler, sterile margin
• ▸ Typically at the base of standing trunks and on fallen beech logs, well into winter

Long known as Datronia mollis (a name still in wide use); molecular work places the species in Podofomes. The English name Common Mazegill points to its ageing, maze-like pores.