Meripilus giganteus - A one-year-old mushroom, arboreal, irregular in shape. Composed of fused single, fan-shaped hats in spherical, rosette or rooflike clusters around a common tuberous strong base, sitting on the ground. Very large, with a diameter of 500 to 800 (1000) mm and a weight of up to 8 kg.

The single hat has a semicircular or lingual shape. Diameters 100 to 300 (500) mm and 10 to 20 mm thick. Colors in young sporocarps, yellow-brown, later black and chestnut, with a lighter creamy edge. Matte, felt surface, covered with very delicate, not very significant scales, concentrically brindle, wrinkled or striated in the radial direction. The shore thin, young rounded, with age uneven, wavy, sinuously cut.

The tubes are off-white, under the influence of darkening pressure. Lengths 4 to 6 mm.

The pores of the whitish color, the oppressed darken. Nearly circular in shape, small, diameter 0.3 to 0.5 mm.

Stem very short, slight, lateral, growing from the common base, or missing.

The flesh is off-white with a pinkish shade, broken and after drying it is blackening. The leathery consistency, bowed, fibrous, thicker than the layer of tubes. Smell pleasant fungus. Taste slightly sour.

Occurrence: Rare in forests, more often in parks, along roads, in cemeteries. He lives as a mite on dead wood or at the base of dying deciduous trees, beeches, oaks, chestnuts, very rarely on conifers. Very rare in Poland. It produces sporocarps from August to October.

Value: Edible fungus only at a very young stage. Older sporocarps inedible due to the thicker consistency.