Cinnabar red polypore (Pycnoporus cinnabarinus)
Systematics:
- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Incertae sedis (undefined)
- Order: Polyporales
- Family: Polyporaceae (Polyporous)
- Genus: Pycnoporus (Pyknoporus)
- Species: Pycnoporus cinnabarinus (Polypore cinnabar)
Fruit body: In youth, the fruit body of the tinder fungus has a bright cinnabar red color. In adulthood, the mushroom fades and becomes almost ocher color. Thick, semicircular fruiting bodies, 3 to 12 cm in diameter. May be oblong and slightly thinning towards the edge. Widely adherent, cork. The pores retain their cinnabar red color even in adulthood, while the surface and flesh of the tinder fungus become reddish ocher. The fruiting body is annual, but dead mushrooms can persist for a long time, as long as circumstances permit.
Flesh: red in color, quickly becomes a cork consistency. The spores are tubular, medium in size. Spore powder: white.
Distribution: Rare. Fruiting from July to November. Grows on dead branches, stumps and trunks of deciduous trees. Fruiting bodies are preserved during the winter period.
Edibility: for food, the cinnabar-red tinder fungus (Pycnoporus cinnabarinus) is not used, since it belongs to the genus of tinder fungus.
Similarity: This species of tinder fungus is so remarkable and not repeated, due to its bright color, that it can hardly be confused with other tinder fungi growing in our country. At the same time, it has some similarity with Pycnoporellus fulgens, mainly in bright color, but this species grows on coniferous trees.
Notes: Cinnabar red polypore (Pycnoporus cinnabarinus) is a technical mushroom. You can often find information about the prospects of its use in the pulp and paper industry for the production of cellulose from various industrial waste. Its use is due to the ability of the laccose secreted by the fungus to destroy lignin.
Photo of the mushroom Tinder cinnabar red from the questions in recognition:
2019.12.21 Marina 
2019.10.08 Natalia 
2018.11.11 Alexander 
2019.01.20 Vitalij
