A Large, woody bracket with dull zonate cap and truncate double‑walled spores; the common NZ species formerly misidentified as G. applanatum.

Notes: New Zealand material historically referred to as “Ganoderma applanatum” sensu Wakefield (1915) is now recognised as misapplied. True G. applanatum is a Northern Hemisphere species with different spore dimensions, context structure, and pileus morphology. All verified NZ collections match Ganoderma australe.

Basidiome: Large, tough, woody, perennial brackets, sessile or occasionally with a short, thick stipe. Individual basidiomes may reach 300-600 mm across and several centimetres thick. Upper surface dull to slightly laccate, concentrically zoned, colours yellow‑brown, chestnut, or dark reddish‑brown, often with a pale margin when actively growing. Surface may become cracked in age. Pore surface white to cream when fresh, bruising brown; pores round to angular, typically 4-6 per mm. Tube layers accumulate in annual strata, forming a thick, woody mass in older specimens.
Context: distinctly bipartite: an upper dark brown, corky layer and a lower pale to buff layer above the tubes. Texture very tough, fibrous to woody.