### Identification Commonly known as the Alder Bracket, *Mensularia radiata* is a master of texture. You’ll typically spot these fungi growing in "imbricate" clusters—overlapping shelves that look like a stack of rusty, fan-shaped pancakes. Each bracket is 3–8 cm wide with a distinctive velvety, wrinkled surface. Look closely for the namesake radiating ridges that fan out from the point of attachment. When young, the margins are a brilliant, buttery yellow or orange, but they deepen into a rich, foxy cinnamon-brown as they mature. On a humid morning, look for "guttation"—clear or amber droplets of liquid weeping from the pores, looking like tiny jewels. It is smaller and more ridged than the Shaggy Bracket (*Inonotus hispidus*), which lacks the distinct radial furrows.
### Habitat & Range This is a specialist of the damp and the shadowed. It is almost exclusively found on **Alder (*Alnus*)**, though it occasionally colonizes Birch or Hazel. You’ll find it in wet woodlands, carr, and along riverbanks across the Northern Hemisphere, from the British Isles through Europe to North America. It favors low-to-mid elevations where the air remains heavy with moisture.
### Behaviour While the fungal mycelium lives hidden within the wood year-round, the fruiting bodies appear from late summer through autumn. They are technically annual, but their tough, corky texture allows them to persist through winter as blackened, weathered husks. To an observer, they appear as "stackers," slowly consuming the heartwood of standing or fallen trees.
### Diet *Mensularia radiata* is a white-rot fungus. It is both a parasite (attacking living trees) and a saprobe (decomposing dead wood). It secretes powerful enzymes to break down lignin, leaving behind stringy, white cellulose that gives the wood a soft, bleached appearance before it eventually returns to the earth.
### Fascinating Fact If you catch these brackets in the right autumn light, the pore surface on the underside exhibits a silky iridescence. If you tilt your head, the greyish-yellow pores seem to shimmer and change color, a phenomenon caused by the way light reflects off the microscopic, tube-like structures.