Fistulina hepatica
Bot. Arr. Brit. Pl., Edn 2 2: 405. 1792.
Common Name: beefsteak fungus
For description see Gilbertson & Ryvarden, Siegel & Schwarz, & 'California Mushrooms'.
Solitary, on wood or stumps of chinquapin (Chrysolepis chrysophylla), California wax myrtle (Myrica californica), and rarely oaks; uncommon, fruiting from fall through mid-winter in coastal forests.
Edible and excellent.
Fistulina hepatica can be distinguished by its large, soft and fibrous fruitbodies with fuzzy-glutinous dull red to reddish brown caps and white tubes that bruise reddish brown. When cut radially it looks like a tongue or slab of beef and even exudes a blood-like liquid, the basis of its common name. Its most unusual feature is a tube layer composed of separate, individual tubes, not fused together as in other polypores. Fistulina hepatica belongs in the family Schizophyllaceae and is related to the split gill mushroom, Schizophyllum commune.
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— the tubes are descrete units
