Grifola umbellata (Pers. ex Fr.) syn. Polyporus umbellatus Pers. ex Fr. Eichhase Polypore en ombelle. Fruit Body up to 50cm in diameter consisting of a thick fleshy base from which repeated branching occurs, the ultimate branchlets ending in small umbrella-like caps, each 1–4cm across and centrally depressed with a thin, wavy margin, covered in fibrils or small fibrous scales, initially grey-brown becoming ochraceous with age. Stem thin, flushed with cap colour, merging at the bottom into the common trunk-like base. Flesh thin in cap, white. Taste pleasant but with acrid aftertaste, smell pleasant when fresh. Tubes 1–1.5mm long, decurrent on to the stem, straw-yellow. Pores 1 per mm, angular, whitish to straw-yellow. Spores cylindric-ellipsoid, 7–10 x 3–4um. Habitat on the ground arising from a subterranean sclerotium associated with roots of deciduous trees, especially oak. Season
summer to autumn. Very rare. Edible. Distribution, America and Europe.