The Blushing Bracket

On a fallen willow branch  in the old tree nursery section of Filnore Woods I found this array of Daedaleopsis confragosa, the Blushing Bracket. 

This species usually grows on dead willow.  The brackets fan out horizontally so you can tell that they didn't grow on this branch until after it had fallen.

Light and dark brown concentric rings add to the sea-shell appearance.

I picked this one off to show the underside.

You can see that where my thumb bruised the white flesh it stained a reddish brown.  This is what the name 'Blushing Bracket' refers to.  It is also called the 'False Maze Gill', because the labyrinth pattern of pores on the underside is a bit like the underside of another fungus called the maze gill.

Below is a photo of the underside of a true Maze Gill (Daedalea quercina) which grows on oak and sweet chestnut.