Pycnoporus coccineus "Scarlet Bracket" is a very common wood-rotting vermilion fungus found on dead wood, especially Melaleuca. Pycnoporus coccineus grows mainly in temperate Australia and NZ, Pycnoporus sanuineus grows mainly in Northern Australia, and Pycnoporus cinnabarinus grows in the Northern Hemisphere; they are distinguisable only microscopically. Upper brackets to 100x50 mm but variable, often fusing together, often very uneven or pitted, smooth to fibrillose, orange-red, fading with ageing to pinkish-red. Brackets are sometimes quite thin, or can be relatively thick; the texture is corky. Underneath are very fine pores, brilliant vermilion red, colour persisting with age. The vermilion mycelium tends to spread right through the dead wood, and the brackets often engulf twigs or grass. NB: image shows colonization of dead Melaleuca branches. Foreshore, Bournda Inlet, NSW, 2007.