Skip to content

Your account

With an account, your progress (modules read, XP, badges, cards, notebook, pack, challenges) follows you on every device. Without one, it stays in this browser.

or
Harmless🍽️ Edible

🍄 Beefsteak fungus

Fistulina hepatica · Fistulinaceae

🌳 Temperate Europe🫒 Mediterranean🍁 North America
🧠 To remember it"It bleeds like meat, but it's a mushroom" — its red oozing liquid is the most reliable distinguishing mark.
Beefsteak fungus — Fistulina hepatica

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Wood-decay fungus with a strikingly fleshy appearance, shaped like a oozing reddish tongue reminiscent of a piece of raw meat — one of the few mushrooms whose texture and appearance mimic animal flesh, making it highly recognizable.

  1. tongue or kidney-shaped bracket, blood-red to reddish-brown, slimy surface oozing a reddish liquid
  2. underside with fine tubes that are INDEPENDENT of each other (unlike typical polypores whose tubes are fused) — a microscopic feature, but the spongy texture and red oozing are enough in practice
  3. no stem or a very short lateral stem
  4. red, marbled flesh, resembling a slice of meat when cut, exuding a reddish juice
  5. grows on living oak or chestnut trunks, often at the base
  6. acidic taste
Size10-25 cm
FloweringAugust-November
Habitattrunks and stumps of oak and chestnut trees, often at the base of old specimens

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Tender nesting polypore (Hapalopilus rutilans)toxique (encephalopathic syndrome: digestive issues, renal and hepatic damage, purple urine, neurological disorders)

To tell them apart: the tender nesting polypore has firm, brittle flesh with a uniform cinnamon/rust color, WITHOUT the blood-red oozing or the spongy texture soaked in liquid of the beefsteak fungus, and does not visually resemble a slice of meat

🍽️ Eating it

Partsflesh, preferably young
SeasonAugust-November
Tasteacidic, slightly lemony, spongy texture reminiscent of meat

Preparation : edible raw or cooked when young, but its strong acidity is better tolerated cooked or after a brief marinade; older specimens become sour and tough, best avoided

Sources (3)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.