Scarlet Bracket

Description:

This orange polypore is a common wood-decaying fungi, frequently seen on dead logs and smaller branches in habitats ranging from quite moist to arid. Although quite variable in size, it generally forms brackets to about 10cm by 5cm in size, and when fresh is bright orange in colour, although aging sometimes almost to a bleached white, especially when in open sunlight. In the second photo, the stem or foot is clearly visible. Only two brackets found with this spotting. Pycnoporus coccineus grows mainly in temperate Australia and NZ. Similar species Pycnoporus sanuineus grows mainly in Northern Australia, and Pycnoporus cinnabarinus grows in the Northern Hemisphere; they are distinguisable only microscopically.

Habitat:

Bush track in open eucalypt forest, amongst grasses, tree branches and leaf litter at Lake Manchester, a freshwater reservoir west of Brisbane. It is located in Brisbane Forest Park, an area of dense native bushland and subtropical rainforest.