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Aeruginoscyphus Dougoud 2012
Dougoud 2012 named the genus Aeruginoscyphus with the type species A. sericeus (=Peziza sericea, = Erinella sericea), and regarded Erinella aeruginosa as a synonym. Based on ITS sequences from specimens collected and identified by Stip Helleman as Erinella aeruginosa (CBS 128862, CBS 128863), this fungus belongs in a clade with Chlorovibrissea and several other species from New Zealand. Aeruginoscyphus sericeus, and the three unnamed cupulate New Zealand species, make Chlorovibrissea paraphyletic (but this is based only on ITS sequences).
The fungi in this clade are morphologically diverse - Chlorovibrissea with glabrous, long-stalked, capitate apothecia, Aeruginoscyphus and the other New Zealand species with cupulate apothecia that are hairy and stipitate to substipitate. The New Zealand species PDD 70096 is phylogenetically closeest to A. sericeus. Both species are found on wood and have long, greenish, smooth-walled hairs but the New Zealand species has elliptic ascospores with roughened walls. The other two New Zealand species have darker-walled hairs, have hair-like elements scattered across the hymenium, and are found on fallen leaves.
Additional genes may help clarify relationships amongst these morphologically divergent fungi.
Agaricus L. 1753

Cap smooth or with dark fibrillose scales, usually dull in colour (some of the indigenous pecies with dark brown scales);, stalk central with a well-developed ring;, gills always pink when immature, becoming dark chocolate brown as spores develop, more or less free. Stalk typically breaks cleanly away from the cap. Spore print chocolate brown. Saprobic on the soil.

Seven indigenous species have been reported, although the genus has been rather poorly collected and a number of these species have been seen only rarely. There may be around 12 introduced species. The identity of Agaricus to the species level is often problematic without a good understanding of the kind of variation in appearance that can occur with changes in weather, age, or micro-site.

The indigenous species are typically found in forests, the exotic species in grassy areas, on lawns, in parks and in farmland. Included amongst the exotic species is the "field mushroom" and the "button mushroom", commercial strains of which are grown for sale in the shops.

Not all Agaricus species are edible. Those in which the flesh stains yellow at the base of the stalk often cause stomach upsets, sometimes severe. Agaricus xanthoderma is a name that has been used uncritically in New Zealand for a set of species all with this yellow-staining feature, probably all introduced. One of these species is common on lawns in northern New Zealand towns and cities, smaller in stature than most Agaricus species and with the very top of the cap having a small flattened area.

Care also needs to be taken not to confuse Agaricus with the deadly poisonous Amanita, mushrooms of similar stature and often with a ring on the stalk, but always with white spores and gills. Other white-spored mushrooms that can be otherwise somewhat similar in appearance and habitat to Agaricus include Chlorophyllum and Leucoagaricus.

The field mushroom and its relatives. Saprobes, always found on soil. Not all species are edible. Species from native forests should probably be avoided, as sho those where the flesh stains yellow at the base of the stalk.

The pink gills of the immature mushrooms turn dark chocolate brown as the spores are formed. About 30 species have been reported, but the genus remains poorly understood for New Zealand. Although some of these species are indigenous, the origin of many is uncertain.

Only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Agrocybe Fayod 1889

Spore print dark brown. Caps up to about 20cm diam., smooth, dry, yellow-brown in colour. Stalk robust and in some species with conspicuous hanging ring frequently covered by a deposit of brown spores. Gills when young completely covered by veil until shortly before cap is fully expanded.

The genus is common with about a dozen species including both native and exotic species, on substrates such as wood of living trees, buried wood, and wood mulch. At least one native species occurs in both forest and urban habitats.

Ten species in New Zealand, both exotic and indigenous. Most are found on soil and well-rotted litter (including wood chip mulches), but the large, iconic, edible A. parasitica is most commonly found at the base of living tawa trees.

Only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Albotricha sp. "yellow" P.R. Johnst.

Albotricha sp. 'yellow'

Apothecia >1 mm diam., narrow-stipitate, cupulate, densely covered with somewhat matted and tangled hairs, sometimes aggregated into small, tooth-like clumps, pale lemon yellow when fresh, often drying bright yellow, hymenium yellow. Hairs 80-100 x 2.5-3 µm, more or less straight, walls smooth, thin, sparingly septate, undifferentiated to apex. Ectal excipulum of short-cylindric cells, 3-6 µm diam., with walls thickened, hyaline. Paraphyses 2-2.5 µm diam., undifferentiated or tapering slightly to rounded apex, extend about 10 µm beyond asci. Asci 75-85 x 7.5-9 µm, cylindric, taper suddenly to small, truncate apex, wall slightly thickened at apex with J+ pore extending right through, no croziers, 8-spored. Ascospores 26-46 x 2-2.5 µm, filiform, straight, not tapering to rounded ends, 0(-3) septate.

Has been found in both New Zealand and Australia, on dead leaves of a range of indigenous grasses and sedges.

ITS phylogeny places it in a reasonably well supported clade with GenBank accessions identified as Albotricha spp. The smooth walled hairs and thick walled excipular cells are typical of the genus. Based on comments in Hosoya et al. (2010, DOI 10.1007/s10267-009-0023-1) and Raitviir (1970, Synopsis of the Hyaloscyphceae), the New Zealand species is morphologically somewhat divergent from northern species in ascospore size, paraphysis morphology, and hair morphology (spores small and hairs pointed fide Raitviir; lanceolate paraphyses extending well past asci fide Hosoya). The hairs of Albotricha should be ornamented with amorphous lumps near the base, but this ornamentation often lost with mountants such as KOH and Melzers (e.g. Huhtinen, Karstenia 25: 17-20, 1985)

Aleurocystis Lloyd ex G. Cunn. 1956
Corticioid fungi forming saucer-shaped fruititng bodies on dead wood. A single species known from New Zealand.
Aleurodiscus parmuliformis G. Cunn. 1956
Specimens identified by Barbara Paulus as Aleurodiscus parmulariformis (red in the attached tree) are sister to A. mirabilis sensu Wu et al. (2011, 2010), and hence phylogentically distinct from Aleurodiscus sensu stricto (type species A. amorphus, blue in the attached tree). The attached phylogeny is based on LSU sequences from PDD 89138 incorporated into the alignment from Wu et al. (2001).
Aleurodiscus Rabenh. ex J. Schröt. 1888 [1889]

Corticioid fungi with cup-shaped basidiocarps, sometimes adjacent ones coalescing. Saprobic on dead wood.

13 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Amanita Pers. 1797

Large mushrooms, solitary or in small groups on soil close to their ectomycorrhizal host trees. Cap typically with large scaly or powdery patches, white, yellowish, greyish, dark brown, or red (the exotic A. muscaria) in colour. Gills free, white, covered with veil when immature, the veil sometimes forming a persistent ring around the stalk in mature fruiting bodies. Stalk swollen towards the base, the base itself typically surrounded by a seperate, sac-like ‘volva’ (the volva is the remains of a seperate layer of tissue which surrounds the entire fruiting body when it is very young - the ‘universal veil’), although the prominance of the volva varies between species. Spore print white.

Amanita species are ectomycorrhizal, their mushrooms are always found close to their host trees. The indigenous species are confined to either Nothofagus forests or to stands of tea-tree, where they are often found in large numbers in the autumn. There are 10 indigenous species (all endemic), and two common exotic species, A. muscaria and A. phalloides (see images and notes below).

Volvariella another soil-inhabiting fungus with a volva, is best distinguished from Amanita by its pink spore print. Leucoagaricus has a similar stature to Amanita, has white spores and free gills, but never has scales on the cap and lacks a volva. It is found in grassy areas, rather than forests. Lepiota species have scaly caps, a ring on the stalk, white spores and free gills, but are much smaller in stature than Amanita, and again lack a volva. Macrolepiota and Chlorophyllum have a well developed ring, but lack a volva Chlorophyllum has a greenish spore print.

Ectomycorrhizal under beech, tea-tree and introduced mycorrhizal trees. Includes the introduced fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), common under a range of introduced conifers and hardwoods. Another introduced species, A. phalloides, is one of New Zealand's most poisonous mushrooms.

Eighteen species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Amyloathelia Hjortstam & Ryvarden 1979
Crust fungi saprobic on dead wood. The genus is characterised by the thick-walled, amyloid spores. The single New Zealand species (A. amylacea) is a cosmopolitan species found on a wide range of hosts in New Zealand.
Anastrophella E. Horak & Desjardin 1994

Tiny, white, highly-reduced fruiting bodies, with the appearance of an upside-down cup. Saprobic. Seperated from Gloiocephala because the cups are oriented downwards.

A single species reported from new Zealand.

Anthostomella Sacc. 1875

Ascospores like the other Xylariaceae, dark walled with a germ slit, but unlike most genera in this group, the fruiting bodies are microscopic. They are immersed in host substrate, with blackened tissue above the fruiting body giving the surface of the host a darkened appearance. Saprobes, mostly host-specific. The genus has not been surveyed intensively for New Zealand.

Ten species have been reported from New Zealand, all indigenous. Only those listed below are treated by the Virtual Mycota.

Anthracoidea Bref. 1895

Infecting seeds of Cyperaceae, spore masses not intermixed with sterile elements. Basidium 2-celled, spores single (not in balls).

There are 5 species in New Zealand, all indigenous.

Anthracophyllum Ces. 1879

Spore print white. Small fruiting bodies, often in large groups, attached laterally to wood or twigs. Flesh leathery and gills often fold-like and poorly defined.

There are 3 species reported for New Zealand, all indigenous, one also known from Australia.

Saprobic, found on dead twigs and small branches.

Some Marasmiellus species have the same combination of small, leathery fruiting bodies with lateral attachement. The genera are distinguished microscopically.

Small, thin-fleshed but tough and leathery, saprobic basidiomycetes with helf-like fruiting bodies form on dead wood. Globose to subglobose spores. The hymenial surface is folded rather than gill-like. Cheimonophyllum and Mniopetalum are morphologically similar. Anthracophyllum is characterised by its reddish pigments that dissolve in KOH. Mniopetalum grows on mosses.

Anthurus Kalchbr. & MacOwan 1880

Anthurus and Aseroe are similar stinkhorns with a white stalk-like base and several tapering bright red arms. Anthurus characteristically has the arms joined at the top, but the number of arms and persistence of the joining of the arms varies somewhat in New Zealand material. Aseroe has free arms, and at the the top of the stalk there is a lateral disc, from which the arms are said to arise. In both taxa, there is copious, brown slime on the inside of the base of the arms.

Saprobic on soil and litter. Often in disturbed sites in natural areas, and very common on wood chip mulch in urban areas.

Antrodia P. Karst. 1879

Polypore fungi forming resupinate or bracket-shaped basidiocarps, associated with a brown rot.

Five species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Antrodiella Ryvarden & I. Johans. 1980

Polypore fungi forming bracket to crust-like basidiocarps, causing a white rot of dead wood.

Five or six species have been reported from New Zealand, almost all apparently restricted to the North Island. One exception is a species referred to by G.H. Cunningham as Poria undata (an incorrectly applied Northern Hemisphere name); this has a curious distribuition with two centres, one around Northland, the other around Southland, suggesting that there may be two distinct species grouped under this name.

While A. zonata has fine teeth or warts on its spore-bearing surface, other species of Antrodiella in New Zealand have pores, not teeth.

Polypore fungi forming bracket to crust-like basidiocarps, causing a white rot of dead wood.

Five or six species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Aphelaria Corner 1950
Tough, coral-like fungus with white, narrow, highly branched fruiting body. Saprobic on soil. One species reported from New Zealand.
Arachnopeziza araneosa (Sacc.) Korf 1952 [1951]
There are at least three Arachnopeziza araneosa-like species in New Zealand. All of the New Zealand species match A. araneosa ecologically, forming apothecia on large pieces of partly rotten wood. All have small, sessile, whitish to pale yellow apothecia held on a subiculum of whitish hyphae. The genetically distinct groups differ in ascospore size, in and appreance of the hairs.
Whether any of them match the Tasmanian type specimen of A. araneosa is not known. I have DNA sequences from only one Australian specimen (AU09-47, PDD 111524), an undescribed species with much larger ascospores than A. araneosa (based on the description in Spooner 1987).
NZ Group 1 [D693/PDD 59117; D781/PDD 59980; D386/PDD 55510; D1599/PDD 74085; D997/PDD 69076] Ascospores 30-58 x 3.5-4.5 µm, average 43.9 x 3.7 µm, 5-7 septate, septa form early are are well defined. Hairs broad, more or less cylindric, often constructed at septa, about 49-97 x 7.5-18 (avge 74 x 9.8 um) The spores are about the right size and have the right number of septa for A. araneosa based on Spooner’s description, but the hairs differ in shape to those illustrated by Spooner.
NZ Group 2 [D955/PDD 105290] Compared with Group 1 the spores are longer, 70-85 x 3.5-4.5, average about 77 x 4 µm and the septa form late in development and are poorly defined. AU09-47 has very similar spores (60-90 x 3.5.5, avge 74.4 x 4.2 µm, and again with poorly defined late-forming septa). The hairs are quite regular, tapering toward apex but with apical cell slightly swollen, similar to Spooner description of A. araneosa.
NZ Group 3 [D2154/PDD 105289] Ascospores intermediate in size between the other two groups, septa develop early and are well defined, 48-72 x 3.5-4.5, average 61.6 x 3.9 µm. The hairs are short and broad, 33-66 x 4-8.5, avge 49.2 x 6.3 µm.
Arachnopeziza Fuckel 1870 [1869-70]
There are several undescribed leaf-inhabiting Arachnopeziza species in New Zealand (see ITS tree in images), known from rather few specimens and not yet characterised morphologically. These have been collected from Phormium, Juncus, and Dianella leaves. There are also several Arachnopeziza araneosa-like taxa, see NZFUNGI description under this species. The sister species ICMP 15322 was identified as Clathrosphaerina zalewskii based on morphology; the Hyaloscypha name attached to this specimen is based on the putative anamorph/teleomorph link for Clathrosphaerina. [PRJ, May 2018]
Arcyria Hill ex F.H. Wigg. 1780

Fruiting body a sessile or stalked sporangium, usually more than 0.5 mm tall, sterile filaments amongst the spores highly sculptured, spore mass red, yellow or pale grey. After the wall of the fruiting body breaks the elastic filaments amongst the spores expand in a tangled mass of very fine filaments to often twice the size of the original sporangium. Fourteen species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Armillaria (Fr.) Staude 1857

Spore print white. Caps up to about 10 cm diam., smooth or with small scales on the top, sticky when wet, brownish or yellowish in colour. Stalk very tough, fibrous, darker than cap. Gills covered by a veil when young, the veil persistent as a ring around the stalk when mature, although the ring often becomes flattened against the stalk. Gills attached to stalk.

Typically found in large groups on large pieces of fallen wood and dead stumps. Forms thick, black, bootlace-like ‘rhizomorphs’ beneath the bark of the wood on which it is growing. The rhizomorphs also grow through the soil, allowing the fungus to move through the forest to colonise new pieces of wood.

Apparently saprobic in undisturbed native forest, but can cause disease in some situations. The rhizomorphs can attack and kill living roots, especially of introduced tree species in disturbed sites for example pine trees planted in areas of recently cut native forest. Armillaria also colonises wood from spores dispersed through the air, and it may become established on cut stumps in parks or orchards. From these stumps the rhizomorphs can grow out and kill surrounding trees.

At least three species in New Zealand, all indigenous. The species are distinguished by rather subtle differences in size and colour. The two most common species are A. limonea and A. novaezelandiae.

Large, wood-inhabiting mushrooms, typically developing in gregarious groups. The tough, often darkened, stipe has a ring. Characterised by 'boot-strap' rhizomorphs extending through colonised wood. Some species are edible and good.

Often causing root-rot disease in trees and shrubs in human landscapes, where the disease can spread from plant to plant via the rhizomorphs under the soil. Common also in native forests throughout the country, where it apparently causes no disease.

Four species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Armillaria limonea (G. Stev.) Boesew. 1977
A. limonea is larger than A. novae-zelandiae, the cap yellowish in colour, with well-developed darker scales.
Armillaria novae-zelandiae (G. Stev.) Herink 1973
A. novae-zelandiae is smaller than A. limonea and has a smoother, dull brown cap.
Artomyces Jülich 1982 [1981]

Pyxidately branched fruiting-bodies, ending in a small crown of pointed branches. Flesh soft, easily crushed. Always on wood. Often reported as Clavicorona in the New Zealand literature.

Five species have been reported from New Zealand, although only A. turgidis is common.

Pyxidately branched fruiting-bodies, ending in a small crown of pointed branches. Often reported as Clavicorona in the New Zealand literature

Five species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Ascocoryne J.W. Groves & D.E. Wilson 1967
There are at least nine species of Ascocoryne in New Zealand, most of which are unnamed. The ITS tree of Ascocoryne in New Zealand, illustrateds the 9 phylogenetic species in New Zealand, 7 of which may need names. The PJ-2021a - PJ-2021g labels are tag names used in the GenBank accessions for the ITS sequences.
Aseroe Labill. 1800

Aseroe, the flower fungus, has a white stalk-like base and several tapering bright red arms. Aseroe has free arms, and at the top of the stalk there is a flat, perforated disc, from which the paired arms arise.

Saprobic on soil and litter. Often in disturbed sites in natural areas.

Anthurus is very similar, distinguished by the lack of a flat disc and by the arms often remaining joined at their tips. The forms common on garden mulch often vary in the pairing and number of arms.

Anthurus and Aseroe are similar stinkhorns with a white stalk-like base and several tapering bright red arms. Anthurus characteristically has the arms joined at the top, but the number of arms and persistence of the joining of the arms varies somewhat in New Zealand material. Aseroe has free arms, and at the the top of the stalk there is a lateral disc, from which the arms are said to arise. In both taxa, there is copious, brown slime on the inside of the base of the arms.

Saprobic on soil and litter. Often in disturbed sites in natural areas, and very common on wood chip mulch in urban areas.

Asterocalyx Höhn. 1912
Based on the discussion in Spooner (1987), Asterocalyx had frequently been placed close to Godronia (e.g. Hohnel 1912, 1918; Clements & Shear 1931; Nannfeldt 1932; Korf 1973), the genera sharing gelatinised excipulum and elongated ascospores. Dumont & Carpenter (Mycologia 70: 68-75, 1980) placed the genus in the Sclerotiniaceae because the host tissue beneath the apothecia was blackened. It is now known that blackened host tissue is not a useful character for higher level taxonomy in the Leotiomycetes. DNA sequences from recent New Zealand and Australian specimens of Asterocalyx agree with the older litertaure, placing the genus close to Godronia and Gremenniella, both of these genera belonging in the Godroniaceae sensu Baral 2015.
The Australian and New Zealand specimens sequenced have distinct ITS sequences (95% identical), and these two different species differ also in ascus and ascospore size and somewhat in macroscopic appearance. Spooner (1987) noted that the Australian specimen he examined was morphologically somewhat different to the type specimen from Java. The PDD specimen from the Solomon Islands is macroscopically quite distinct. There appear to be a set of closely related, undescribed Asterocalyx species on ferns in Australasia and tropical Asia. For now, the PDD specimens are all accepted as A. mirabilis.
Asterostroma Massee 1889

Corticioid fungi with fruititng body loosely attached to surface. Saprobes on dead wood.

Four species reported from New Zealand. Only those listed below have images or descriptions avaioable in NZFungi.

Astrocystis Berk. & Broome 1873 [1875]

Solitary globose perithecia, erumpent from host tissue and remaining immersed at the base, dark wall covered with outer layer of white, soft tissue which is lost as the fruting body ages.

Two species have been reported from New Zealand, A. cyatheae is common on tree fern fronds, and there may be a palm-inhabiting species on nikau.

Astrosporina J. Schröt. 1889

Ectomycorrhizal species in beech forest and under tea-tree. Small, brown mushrooms with distinctively shaggy caps, distinguished from Inocybe by spore shape.

Twelve species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Auricularia Bull. ex Juss. 1789
The wood-ear fungus, saprobic on dead wood. Rubbery fruiting bodies, attached laterally with no stalk, smooth underneath. Often in large groups. Edible and used widely in Chinese cuisine. Formed the basis of one of New Zealand’s early export industries. Also eaten by Maori and known by several names, including harakeke.

The wood ear fungus, basidiomycetes saprobic on dead wood. Leathery, gelatinous fruiting bodies, attached laterally with no stipe. Hymenial surface smooth. Often in large groups.

Poorly understood taxonomically, four species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Australoporus P.K. Buchanan & Ryvarden 1988
Sometimes mistaken for perennial Phellinus and Fomes, the single species of Australoporus has a pore surface that is pale pink to orange, whereas it is brown in Phellinus, and white in Fomes.
Large bracket, pore surface initially white, weathering brown, flesh off-white. Easily confused with Phellinus and some Poria species. A single new Zealand species.
Austroboletus (Corner) Wolfe 1980

The pore surface has an almost spongy appearance, and the stalk is deeply creviced.

Two species in New Zealand, both indigenous, one endemic. Ectomycorrhizal, under beech and tea-tree.

Ectomycorrhizal on beech and tea-tree.

The genus is characterised by the deeply reticulate sculpturing on the stipe, pores whitish when young, becoming pinkish with age, not discolouring with damage, pore surface and tubes concolorous.

Two species in New Zealand.

Austrogaster Singer 1962

Secotioid fungus distinguished from Thaxterogaster by its almost smooth spores. Known from a single collection, under Nothofagus. Possibly related to Paxillus.

Austrogautieria E.L. Stewart & Trappe 1985

Truffle-like fungi with columella lacking or very reduced, with the ovoid spores acuminate and with ornamented ridges converging at the apex (cf. Gautieria with well-developed columella and ridges not converging).

Probably related to the Boletales, with spores similar to Boletellus.

Two New Zealand species.

Austropaxillus Bresinsky & Jarosch 1999
Large fleshy fungi with felty light to dark brown caps, sunken towards the centre. The edge of the cap is typically rolled in on itself. The stalk is central and the gills curve down to meet it (decurrent). The gills are quite thickset and generally buff to ochre becoming darker as the spores mature. Spore print orange to rusty brown. Ectomycorrhizal in Nothofagus forests. Three indigenous species of Austropaxillus have been described and are quite common in undisturbed native forest. Genetically distinct from the macroscopically and biologically similar Northern Hemisphere genus Paxillus. Paxillus involutus is an exotic species found in New Zealand under silver birch and other introduced trees. In central Europe Paxillus has a tradition of being collected and pickled so that it can be used in winter stews. It is now known to contain a cumulative poison that attacks the liver and it is possible that our native species are similar.

Macroscopically matching Paxillus, large, often yellowish, umbilicate fruiting bodies with decurrent gills. Ectomycorrhizal under beech and tea-tree.

Distinguished from Paxillus on the basis of the Southern Hemisphere species being genetically distinct from those from the North.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Badhamia Berk. 1853

Fruiting body stalked or sessile sporangium, sometimes forming a tubular network on surface of substrate. Wall with lime granules. Spore mass dark, sterile elements surrounding spores with lime, uniform in dameter. Seven species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Beenakia D.A. Reid 1956
Bracket fungus, but with distinct teeth on the fertile surface. Saprobic on wood. A single New Zealand species.
Bertrandia R. Heim 1936
One species in New Zealand, also widely distributed in tropical Africa and Asia. In New Zealand most commonly found in the North Island or the northern part of the West Coast. Saprobic.
Biscogniauxia Kuntze 1891

Fruiting bodies forming large, flat sheets, intially covered by host bark, the remains of that covering tissue overlapping the edges of the mature fruiting body. Often on recently fallen wood, possibly with endophytic phase in bark of living tree.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Bisporella Sacc. 1884

Small, bright yellow or greenish cups, often in large swarms. Saprobic on fallen wood.

Two species have been reported from New Zealand, but they are taxonomically poorly understood and others are also present.

Small, bright yellow or greenish cups, often in large swarms. Saprobic on fallen wood.

Two species have been reported from New Zealand, but taxonomically poorly understood and others are present.

Bjerkandera P. Karst. 1879

Fruiting bodies in confluent (growing together) groups on dead wood, readily identified by the distinctly grey lower poroid surface. Saprobic.

Only one species in New Zealand.

Bracket fungi, forming a white rot.

The single New Zealand species is found on dead wood of many native and exotic hosts.

Boidinia Stalpers & Hjortstam 1982

White to creamy crust fungi with smooth fertile surface, saprobic on dead plant material.

Two New Zealand species.

Bolbitius Fr. 1838

Small, inconspicuous, saprobic mushrooms on soil and litter. Cap typically viscid and striate.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Boletus L. 1753

The genus is characterised by the cap being dry (rather than slimy as in Suillus), never with a ring around the stalk, and the spore print olivaceous when fresh.

There are three indigenous species, all endemic, plus one introduced. The indigenous species are all associated with tea-tree. The introduced B. edulis is associated with oaks at a few South Island localities.

The native species are ectomycorrhizal on beech and tea-tree. The introduced B. edulis is known from under oaks at a few South Island localities.

The genus is characterised by the flesh and/or pores often having yellow colours, and the flesh often turning blue with damage. Spore print olivaceous when fresh.

Six species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Bondarzewia Singer 1940

Fruiting at ground level from buried wood or roots, or on logs in native forests, and forming a large compound fruiting body with a poroid lower surface

Represented in New Zealand by a single species.

Botryobasidium Donk 1931

Corticioid fungi forming thin, reticulate or porose fruiting bodies on fallen wood.

Poorly understoos taxonomically. About six species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Bovista Pers. 1794

Small puffballs found on soil, lacking a sterile base, and the inner spore case (tumbler) often separates at maturity and becomes blown around by the wind.

There are 4 species reported from New Zealand.

Fruiting bodies globose in shape, no sterile base, usually white, flesh white when young, powdery and brown when mature, opening through a well-defined pore. On soil, often in grassy places.

Four species reported for New Zealand but poorly understood taxonomically. Only those species listed below treated in the Virtual Mycota.

Bulbillomyces Jülich 1974
Smooth, greyish fruiting bodies flat against substrate. Often associated with the small, scattered, globose tufts of hyphae of the anamorph. One species in New Zealand.
Byssomerulius Parmasto 1967
Corticioid fungi causing a white rot of wood. Resupinate to pileate, the fertile surface folded. Three species in New Zealand.
Cadophora Lagerb. & Melin 1927

ITS gene tree of the 50 or so New Zealand Mollisia and Mollisia-like species for which there are cultures, comparing them with Joey Tanney (2016) Phialocephala specimens, Brian Douglas (2013, PhD thesis), and Genbank BLAST matches to accessions from type specimens. UNITE Species Hypothesis matches are noted. Morphology has barely been compared, but in the case of NZ Species 31 morphology does not support the ITS-based genetic match. Any matches need confirming with a more discriminatory gene; RPB1 has been used by Tanney and others. Generic limits remain poorly resolved.

Data in Geneious Dan Discos\28 Sept 2017\Mollisia

'Mollisia' in the sense discussed here includes most of the New Zealand specimens having a sexual fruiting body with a Dermateaceae morphology in the sense of Korf (excipulum of more or less globose cells, usually with dark walls) that have an ITS sequence available, in morphologically defined genera such as Mollisia, Pyrenopeziza, Niptera, and Tapesia. Also included are the (as yet unpublished) sequences from the Mollisia PhD thesis of Brian Douglas, the Phialocephala sequences from Joey Tanney (Mycologia, 2016), and sequences that represent type specimens from Genbank BLAST search results based on the New Zealand sequences.

New Zealand specimens match Cadophora luteoolivacea and C. dextrinospora. The other approximately 8 species appear to be distinct from all Genbank data.

Included in the phylogeny on the basis of genetic similarity are a range of Leotiomycetes with reduced ascomata (e.g. Loramyces), several genera based on asexual morphologies (e.g. Barrenia, Acephala, Fuscosclera and Phialocephala, in addition to the genus Vibrissea. Genetically robust generic limits amongst these fungi remain to be resolved.

Some specimens with a more or less Mollisia-like morphology are genetically distinct. For example, D1091, D818, D770, in UNITE Species Hypothesis SH021623.07FU and genetically close to fungi with an aquatic hyphomycete like morphology such as Helicodendron, Filosporella, Tricladium, etc.

Calocera (Fr.) Fr. 1825

Characterised by the fruiting body being cylindrical, upright, often pointed, simple or branched, flesh zoned in transverse section. Saprobic on wood. Five species have been reported from New Zealand.

A member of the Dacrymycetales (the Order characterised by the furcate basidia - forked with 2 long terminal branches and 2 sterigmata), and within the Order characterised by fruiting body cylindrical, upright, often pointed, simple or branched, flesh zoned in transverse section.

Saprobic on wood.

Five species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Calocybe Kühner ex Donk 1962

Saprobic mushrooms on soil. Spores white, inamyloid, smooth, no veil remnants.

Poorly understood, two species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Calomyxa Nieuwl. 1916

Fruiting body a sessile sporangium. One species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Calostoma Desv. 1809

Calostoma fruiting bodies comprise globose black to brown spore cases raised from the soil on a spongy gelatinous woven stalk. The spores are contained in an elastic inner bag inside the spore case. The narrow, branched opening is surrounded by brightly-coloured "lips".

Two species are recorded from New Zealand, both from beech forest.

Saprobic on soil. Distinctive round fruiting bodies with brightly coloured 'lips' around the opening, with a viscid, highly textured stalk.

Two species in New Zealand.

Calvatia Fr. 1849

Large (usually more than 5 cm across) terrestrial puffballs found in forest and open grassy areas. The spores are released following irregular breakdown of the outer wall, rather than through a distinct pore.

There are 4 species known from New Zealand, all probably introduced.

Puffballs, including the huge C. gigantea, up to the size of a football. The inside of the fruiting body is firm and white before the dry, brown spores are produced. Typically with a sterile, stalk-like base, opening by irregular plitting of the wall. Lycoperdon and Morganella, also with stalk-like bases, open through a more regular pore. Includes both exotic species in farms and cities, as well as indigenous species in the bush.

Four species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Calyptella Quél. 1886

Saprobic on dead wood. Basidiomycete with more or less smooth, small, brownish, cup-shaped fruiting body.

Two species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Camarophyllus (Fr.) P. Kumm. 1871

Brightly coloured wax-gills saprobic on soil and litter. Included in Hygrocybe by some authors.

Ten species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Campanella Henn. 1895 [1897]

Small, tough, thin-fleshed, mushroom-like fruiting bodies attached laterally to wood. Hymenial surface irregularly folded or with anastomosing ridges, spores white and subglobose. Anthracophyllum species have reddish pigments that dissolve in KOH.

Four species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Cantharellula Singer 1936

Small, bright yellow mushrooms with umbillicate cap and decurrent gills. Saprobic on soil in native grasslands.

Two species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Cantharellus Adans. ex Fr. 1821

Spore print white. Caps often distorted in shape, sunken in the centre and somewhat funnel-shaped. The gills are poorly developed, with a fold-like appearance. The stalk is short and has no ring. Brightly coloured, often in large swarms on the forest floor.

The bright yellow Cantharellus wellingtonensis is common throughout the country. Its biology is uncertain, but is particularly common under tea-tree and Nothofagus, and it may be ectomycorrhizal.

The only other species reported for New Zealand is the rarely collected, salmon-coloured C. elsae.

Small, pale to brightly coloured mushrooms, with poorly developed, decurrent gills, stipe irregularly eccentric, cap becoming irreguarly umbilicate.

Often occurs in large numbers, usually associated with either beech or tea-tree, presumably ectomycorrhizal.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Ceraceomyces Jülich 1972

Corticioid fungi on fallen wood. Characterised by the hymenial layer usually becoming cracked when dry. The basidia proliferate causing the hymenium to become thicker as the fruiting body ages (distinguishing it from Athelia).

Poorly understood taxonomically. About 3 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Cerinomyces G.W. Martin 1949

A member of the Dacrymycetales (the Order characterised by the furcate basidia - forked with 2 long terminal branches and 2 sterigmata), and within the Order characterised by effused fruiting body with no definite point of attachment.

A single New Zealand species, saprobic on wood.

Ceriporia Donk 1933

Polypore fungi forming crust-like basidiocarps on dead wood, causing a white rot.

Poorly understood taxonomically. Three or four species occur in New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Ceriporiopsis Domański 1963

Polypore fungi forming crust-like basidiocarps on dead wood, causing a white rot.

Poorly understood taxonomically. Three or four species occur in New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Chaetocalathus Singer 1943 [1942]

Small, fleshy agaric with a short lateral stipe. Saprobic on wood. Characterised by its dextrinoid, subglobose spores. A single species in New Zealand, until recently known only from puriri wood.

Chalciporus Bataille 1908

The genus is characterised by the pores often having reddish colours, and the base of the stipe with bright yellow mycelium. The cap is viscid. Spore print cinnamon to flesh-brown.

Two species in New Zealand, one indigenous and endemic under Nothofagus, the other exotic and typically under pines and introduced broadleafed trees.

Ectomycorrhizal, one indigenous species under beech, one exotic species under pines.

The genus is characterised by the pores often having reddish colours, and the base of the stipe with bright yellow mycelium. The cap is viscid. Spore print cinnamon to flesh-brown.

Chamonixia Rolland 1899

Ectomycorrhizal under beech.

One very common species in New Zealand, usually partly buried, surface with patchy bluish discoloration. Sometimes referred to by the older name of Gautieria in the New Zealand literature.

Ectomycorrhizal under beech.

One very common species in New Zealand, usually partly burried, surface with patchy blueish discoloration.

Cheimonophyllum Singer 1955

Small, thin-fleshed but tough and leathery, saprobic basidiomycetes with helf-like fruiting bodies form on dead wood. Globose to subglobose spores. The hymenial surface is folded rather than gill-like. Cheimonophyllum and Mniopetalum are morphologically similar. Anthracophyllum is characterised by its reddish pigments that dissolve in KOH. Mniopetalum grows on mosses.

Two species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Chlorencoelia J.R. Dixon 1975
Based on ITS sequences, there are at least three Chlorencoelia spp. in New Zealand forests (red, blue, and purple in attached tree). Whether any of these species represent the north temperate C. torta or C. versiformis is doubtful. The purple species is known also from Australia.
Chlorociboria Seaver ex C.S. Ramamurthi, Korf & L.R. Batra 1958 [1957]

Small, blue-green cup fungi, saprobic on fallen wood which is also stained blue-green. Some species stain the infected wood internally, in others the stain is confined to the surface of the wood. Some species are characteristically associated with rotten wood, with the texture of a white rot, others are associated with wood which remains hard. Wood infected by these fungi is sometimes used for decorative purposes

The genus is highly diverse in New Zealand with 13 species, many putatively endemic.

Small, blue-green cup fungi, saprobic on fallen white which is also stained blue-green. Highly diverse in New Zealand with 13 species, many putatively endemic.
Chlorophyllum Massee 1898

Large, fleshy, long-stalked mushrooms always on soil. Cap covered with large, brown scales, white beneath the scales. Stem with well-developed ring, stem often swollen near the base. Gills white, free.

In New Zealand there is a single, introduced species, found in grassy areas, on wasteland or in wood chip mulches. Often refered to under the genus name Macrolepiota.

Recent molecular work has expanded the concept of Chlorophyllum, which now includes the edible, white-spored C. rachodes, as well as the poisonous, green-spored C. molybdites. Although C. molybdites has not been reported from New Zealand, it could occur here. The only sure way to distinguish it from C. rachodes is through spore colour, which can be seen only by making a spore print.

A single, exotic species is known for New Zealand. Better known under the name Macrolepiota, these fungi are found on soil, usually in pastures.

Chondrostereum Pouzar 1959

Fruiting bodies crust-like and sometimes with narrow brackets, closely resembling Stereum. C. purpureum is common on a wide range of introduced hosts.

The endemic C. vesiculosum is found in native forest.

Corticioid fungi causing a white rot, with crust-like basidiocarps, often with a shelf-like margin.

Two species in New Zealand. The introduced C. purpureum causes silver blight of stone and pip fruits, while C. vesiculosum occurs on a wide range of native hosts, occassionally on introduced trees.

Cintractia Cornu 1883

On Cyperaceae and Juncaceae. Basidia 4-celled, spores black, single (not in balls), not intermixed with sterile elements.

There are 2 species in New Zealand, both indigenous.

Claudopus Gillet 1876
Entoloma-like mushrooms (small, delicate, saprobic, characterised by pink, angular spores) with eccentric, lateral, or no stipe. The single New Zealand species is known also from the Northern Hemisphere.
Claustula K.M. Curtis 1926

Although related to the stinkhorns, the fruiting body of this fungus appears to be truffle-like. Initially a reddish brown, globose ball, it splits at maturity to reveal the white, spore-containing ‘egg’. About 5 cm diameter.

This is the only species of the genus Claustula, and is known from only two locations in New Zealand, as well as in Tasmania. In both countries it is listed as threatened, in New Zealand as Nationally Critical by Department of Conservation. It is probably ectomycorrhizal on beech and/or tea-tree.

The fruiting body of this species remains closed, more or less globose, although this is revealed following the splitting of the outer 'egg' layer. Internally the fruiting body has the appearance of an unopened fruiting body of a 'typical' stinkhorn.
Clavaria L. 1753

Unbranched thin, soft-fleshed clubs, up to about 5 cm high. Variable in colour, from white to yellow, to salmon, to dark grey. Always on the soil, either solitary or in small clumps. Clavaria zollingeri is an exception, having branching clubs, resembling Ramaria and some Ramariopsis species which need to be distinguished using microscopic features. Saprobic on soil.

Over 40 species have been reported from New Zealand.

Macrotyphula similarly has simple clubs, but here they are extremely thin (never more than 2 mm thick), and always dull, whitish to tan colours.

Several Ramariopsis species are macroscopically very similar, and can only be distinguished microscopically.

Fragile, brightly coloured (commonly yellow, white, salmon) coral fungi, often with simple clubs. Common on soil in forests throughout the country.

Over 40 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Clavulina J. Schröt. 1888 [1889]

Clavariois fungi with branched or simple clubs, distinguished from Clavaria by the strictly 2-spored basidia. Saprobic on soil.

About 20 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Clavulinopsis Overeem 1923

Poorly understood group of Clavaria-like species, discussed as a subgenus of Clavaria by Peterson (1988).

Clitocybe (Fr.) Staude 1857

Small to medium sized, fleshy mushrooms saprobic on soil. The cap is typically depressed or umbilicate when mature, the gills decurrent. Spore print is white, creamy or pinkish; the spores are usually smooth, and when pink not angular like Entoloma.

Taxonomically poorly understood, six or more species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Clitocybula (Singer) Singer ex Métrod 1952
Small mushrooms with umbilicate cap, saprobic on wood. The cap is typically depressed or umbilicate when mature, the gills decurrent. Spores white, globose, smooth, amyloid. A single New Zealand species.
Collaria Nann.-Bremek. 1967

Fruiting body stalked sporangium, wall often lost with maturity. Spore mass dark. One species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Colletotrichum acutatum f.sp. pineum Dingley & J.W. Gilmour 1972
Correspondence between Dingley and Brown re Colletotrichum pathogen of pine in Australia
Colloderma G. Lister 1910

Fruiting body sessile sporangium, outer wall layer gelatinous. Spore mass dark. One species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Collopus Earle 1909

Small delicate mushrooms, saprobic on wood. A segregate genus from Mycena, characterised by a glutinous pileus and stipe.

Two species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Collybia (Fr.) Staude 1857

Small to medium sized, fleshy mushrooms with a tough, cartilaginous stem. Saprobic on soil. Gills adnexed to free; spores white, smooth, nonamyloid.

Poorly understood taxonomically, at least seven species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Collybiopsis (J. Schröt.) Earle 1909

A single species is referred to this genus in New Zealand, C. rimutaka. Macroscopically it is Collybia-like, and common as a saprobe on soil.

Four species were placed in Collybiopsis by Horak (1971), but only one remains. Following the key of Horak (1971) the genus was distinguished from Collybia by the presence of cheilocystidia on the gill edge, a concept not widely accepted today.

Coltricia Gray 1821

Polypore fungi with stipitate fruiting bodies, either on soil or rotting wood.

Four species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Comatricha Preuss 1851

Fruiting body stalked sporangium, stalk usually at least half the height. Outer wall layer lost with maturity. Spore mass dark. Six species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Conchomyces Overeem 1927

Fleshy pleurotoid mushrooms with short lateral stipe. Saprobic on wood. Distinguished from other macroscopically and biologically similar white-spored genera by the subglobose, spiny spores and fusoid, thick-walled cheilocystidia.

A single species, common throughout New Zealand, and widespread in the Southern Hemisphere, with a Gondwana-like distribution.

Coniophora DC. 1815

Corticioid fungi forming smooth, wart-like, or knobbly, membranaceous fruiting bodies, which are brownish when mature, often darker towards the centre. Spores brown, smooth, thick-walled, and strongly apiculate.

Members of this genus cause a brown rot (i.e. they produce enzymes that selectively degrade cellulose and hemicellulose of wood cell walls). Coniophora puteana mostly occurs on decaying wood but has rarely been reported as a wound parasite on living trees.

At least 4 species in New Zealand.

Wood decay fungi. Resupinate fruiting bodies with coloured hyphae, brownish, often darker towards the centre, spores stongly apiculate with coloured, smooth walls.

Six species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Conocybe Fayod 1889

Inconspicuous, small, brown mushrooms, spores brown, smooth walled, with germ pore. On the ground in woods, pastures, gardens etc. and on dung; only occasionally directly attached to plant-remains or vegetable refuse; saprophytes.

Eleven species have been reported from New Zealand, as well as several undescribed species. Only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Cookeina Kuntze 1891

Deep, thin-fleshed cups up to about 2 cm across, translucent-pinkish in colour. Saprobic on wood, which is often very hard and blackened on the surface.

There is a single New Zealand species, found also in Australia and tropical Asia.

Deep, thin-fleshed cups up to about 2 cm across, translucent-pinkish in colour. Saprobic on wood. The wood often very hard and blackened on the surface. A single New Zealand species found also in Australia and tropical Asia.
Coprinus Pers. 1797

The "ink-cap" mushrooms, characterised by the gills and cap collapsing into an black, inky mass as they mature. Flesh thin and delicate. Most species are small, the caps often more or less oval in shape, but the tall cylindric Coprinus comatus (shaggy mane) is up to 25 cm high. The small species are often found in large clumps, either on soil or dead wood. They can appear and be gone again within 24 hours. Stalk central with no ring, gills black. Spore print black.

Saprobes, on soil, manure, fallen wood, and dead stumps.

Several species were described from New Zealand by early mycologists, but these fungi are most commonly found in urban and cultivated rural areas, and most species are assumed to be introduced. About 20 species have been reported from New Zealand, although their taxonomy in New Zealand is poorly understood.

Small, delicate, deliquescing mushrooms, on rotting wood, wood chip mulches and soil. Most New Zealand species appear to be exotic, but poorly understood taxonomically.

Several of the 20 or more species reported from New Zealand may have been incorrectly indentified. Only those species listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Cordyceps Fr. 1818
Members of this genus are popularly known as ”vegetable caterpillars” due to their parasitic habit on insect larvae, including some caterpillar species. Fruiting bodies are mostly club-shaped, broad or elongate, depending on the species. They are always derived from an insect host, although the host may be buried in soil. Fruiting bodies are usually dark coloured and camouflaged against the forest floor, with an aerial fertile region comprising aggregated, tiny, flask-shaped structures, within which are formed elongate asci, each containing 8 ascospores. The club may be simple or occasionally branched. Typically only found in native forests. In Asia, species of Cordyceps are of commercial importance for herbal/medicinal use.
Corticium Pers. 1794

Corticioid fungi on wood. This genus is now used in a very restricted sense and most New Zealand material recorded in Corticium needs reassingment to other genera.

At least 10 species are still reported from New Zealand under this name, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Cortinarius (Pers.) Gray 1821

Traditionally Cortinarius includes mushrooms with a central stalk, extremely variable in size and colour, but always with a rusty-brown or cinnamon brown spore print and a "cortina" - a web-like veil covering the gills when immature, and remaining as a few whispy fragments on the stalk when mature. All ectomycorrhizal, these are the most common mushrooms on the ground in Nothofagus forests in autumn.

In recent years molecular studies have shown that features used to distinguish several Cortinarius-like genera, such as the presence of the robust ring on the stalk (e.g. Rozites), gelatinous caps or stalks (e.g. Myxacium, Phlegmacium) and truffle-like fruiting bodies (e.g. Thaxterogaster), have each evolved indepedently several times, and for now many of these genera have been incorporated into a morphologically extremely variable and taxonomically much expanded Cortinarius that is morphologically extremely variable..

More than 100 species of Cortinarius have been described from New Zealand, and many more species are known but remain undescribed. Rarely, if ever, found outside of native forests, where this ectomycorrhizal genus is restricted to forests with either Nothofagus or tea-tree.

Cortinarius is a large, morphologically divergent genus of ectomycorrhizal species. Species in this genus are amongst the most common and prominent mushrooms seen in New Zealand's beech forests in the autumn.

Cortinarius sensu lato has been variously divided into a number of smaller genera over the years. These genera have been based on differences in morphology such as a glutinous cap (Phlegmacium), a glutinous stipe and cap (Myxacium), bright pigments (Dermocybe), or a secotioid habit (Thaxterogaster).Molecular studies have shown that all such features have evolved several times independently amongst the cortinarioid fungi, an progressively these segregate genera are being incorporated back into Cortinarius. Few molecular studies have yet incorporated New Zealand material, and for now many of our species remain in the segregate genera.

Although such a taxonomic approach is neccessary, it makes this biodiverse genus very difficult to handle.

Over 115 species have been described from New Zealand. Only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Craterium Trentep. 1797

Fruiting body stalked sprangium, sporangium cup-shaped, usually opening by operculum, wall encrusted with lime. Spore mass dark. Four species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Crepidotus (Fr.) Staude 1857

Shelf-like fruiting bodies, usually found on large pieces of fallen wood. If a stalk is present, it is short and at one side of the cap. Spore print dull brown to cinnamon brown. Saprobic.

There have been 4 species reported from New Zealand, but many more are present.

Other genera with small, shelf-like fruiting bodies and brown spores include Pyrrhoglossum (2 species in New Zealand), Pleuroflammula (1 species in New Zealand), and Melanotus (3 species in New Zealand). Pyrrhoglossum differs in having rough-walled rather than smooth spores, Pleuroflammula has veil remants at edge of cap.

Saprobes on wood. Mushrooms with small, shelf-like fruiting bodies with brown spores. Most other gilled mushrooms on wood with brown spores have a well-developed stalk. Pyrrhoglossum differs in having rough-walled rather than smooth spores. Pleuroflammula has veil remants at egde of cap.

About 5 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Cribraria Pers. 1794

Fruiting body a tiny stalked sporangium (one species lacks a stalk), the stalk varaible in length. Globose head of the fruiting body comprises a network of very fine threads connected at well-defined nodes. Spores variable in colour. Thirteen species in New Zealand. Species are diffcult to identify without fresh material.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Crinipellis Pat. 1889

Crinipellis are saprobic species found in forests on litter in the forest floor. With white spore print and tough flesh.

C. procera is common on throughout the country, characterised by its very long, slender, tough stalk, and small, pale brown, slightly shaggy cap.

There are 3 other indigenous species reported for New Zealand, but are all less common. Crinipellis scabella has been reported from human habitats around Canterbury and is assumed to be introduced.

Distinguished from Marasmius macroscopically by having bell-shaped rather than flat caps, and with the caps having a slightly hairy surface.

Sabrobes on fallen plant material. Small mushrooms with Marasmius-like fruiting bodies, this genus characerised by having dextrinoid hairs (turn brown in iodine) on the cap.

Six species have been reported from New Zealnd, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Crucibulum Tul. & C. Tul. 1844
Crucibulum laeve the only species recognised in this genus worldwide, is a bird’s nest fungus with a short cylindrical nest felted on the outside and smooth and shining white internally. The white eggs (peridioles) are attached by a fine elastic cord to the nest base.

The birds nest fungi (Crucibulum, Cyathus and Nidula) are saprobes on fallen wood and litter. Two species in New Zealand. The exotic Cyathus striatus is often found on wood chip mulches.

Crucispora E. Horak 1971

A saprobe on soil. The genus comprises a single species known from New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. In New Zealand this species is known from a single locality.

Crustodontia chrysocreas (Berk. & M.A. Curtis) Hjortstam & Ryvarden 2005
Tree based on ITS sequences from Crustodontia (Phlebia) chrysocreas specimens from New Zealand (red), Asia (blue) and N. America (purple). Seems to be a geographically based species complex. N. america is the type locality.
Cudoniella Sacc. 1889
A common discomycete on fallen wood with a Cudoniella-like macromorphology (convex hymenium). The micromorphology (see images under several of the cf. Cudoniella sp. specimens) and ITS based phylogeny show it is a different genus. Based on the ITS, it appears to belong amongst the Hyaloscyphaceae, but this may in part be due to incomplete taxon sampling and its long branch.
Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens pv. poinsettiae (Starr & Pirone 1942) Collins & Jones 1983
Cunningham (1956) first recorded poinsettia leaf spot in New Zealand but did not identify the pathogen, it was just mentioned as “taxonomic studies of leaf spot of poinsettia” in an annual report of the plant diseases division of DSIR. Dingley (1969) reported that that "Bacteria leaf spot on poinsettia is common in outdoor plants in late autumn in the Auckland area". She wrote that the disease was caused by Corynebacterium poinsettiae Starr & Pirone 1942 and cited Cunningham (1956) as the literature reference, however this was in error. Likewise, the publication by Brien & Dingley (1957) also makes this error. Hill (1979) in reporting Xanthomonas campestris pv. poinsetticola as a pathogen of Euphorbia pulcherrima in New Zealand examined the reports of diseases of poinsettia held by APHDS and in personal communication with ICMP curator and bacteriologist D.W. Dye concluded that “C. poinsettia is not known to occur in New Zealand at present”. As of Jan 2019 no cultures of this pathogen exist in the ICMP culture collection, the bacterial leaf spot disease of poinsettia is likely caused by another organism, such as Xanthomonas campestris pv. poinsetticola or Pseudomonas syringae. [BSW, Jan 2019].
References
Cunningham, G.H. 1956: PLANT DISEASES DIVISION. New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. 30th annual Report., pp. 55-9
Brien, R.M.; Dingley, J.M. 1957: Third supplement to "A revised list of plant diseases recorded in New Zealand", 1955-1957. New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology. Section A: Agricultural Section 38(7): 777-782.
Dingley, J.M. 1969: Records of plant diseases in New Zealand. New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Bulletin. 192.
Hill, C.F. 1979: New plant disease records in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research 22: 641-645.
Cyathicula sp. 'white foot' P.R. Johnst.

Cyathicula sp. 'white foot'

Based on ITS analyses, Cyathicula sp. 'white foot' and specimens identified as 'Cudoniella' clavus'C'. tenuispora, Ombrophila violacea and Dendrospora tenella (an asexual aquatic hyphomycete) belong in a clade in Helotiaceae that has a sister relationship to a clade containing the type species of Cyathicula, C. coronata, and the type species of Glarea, G. lozoyensis.

For now I am using Cyathicula as a genus name for this clade just as a matter of convenience:
 - The type species of Cudoniella, C. queletii, is a synonym of C. acicularis, a member of Tricladiaceae, phylogentically distant from 'C'. acicularis.
 - Ombrophila violacea is the type species of Ombrophila. However, Index Fungorum regards O. violacea as a synonym of O. janthina, and an ITS sequence from a specimen identified as O. janthina by Baral (GenBank KC411996 ex HB7044) places it in Gelatinodiscaceae, phylogenetically distant to the putative O. violacea specimens related to 'Cudoniella' clavus.
 - The type species of Dendrospora, D. erecta, has no DNA sequence data available. Many morphologically-defined genera of aquatic hyphomycetes have subsequently shown to be polyphyletic meaning that the phylogentic position of Dendrospora in uncertain.
While phylogentic considerations are important for deciding generic limits, for a generic concept to be useful to humans, it must also consider morphological and ecological features. These need to be studied in detail before deciding whether the 'Cudoniella' clavus clade should represent a single genus, and what that genus should be named.

Cyathicula sp. 'white foot' has a sister relationship with a specimen from southern Chile (GenBank MT366735, ex FLAS-F-66005), the two species with a 96.5% ITS match.

Cyathus Haller 1768
Cyathus includes bird’s nest fungi resembling Crucibulum, in that the eggs are attached by a fine elastic cord to the nest base, but differing in the conical often flaring shape of the nest. Six species are reported from New Zealand.

The birds nest fungi (Crucibulum, Cyathus and Nidula) are saprobes on fallen wood and litter. The exotic Cyathus striatus is often found on wood chip mulches.

Six species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Cyclomyces Kunze ex Fr. 1830

Superficially very similar to Inonotus with brown, thin, bracket-like, poroid fruiting bodies, but fruiting bodies of Cyclomyces are much thinner and more flexible than those of Inonotus.

A single common species in New Zealand.

Polypore fungi with a thin, imbricate, bracket-like fruiting bodies on fallen wood. Causing a white rot. The only New Zealand species, C. tabacinus, is common on a range of native and exotic hosts.
Cyptotrama Singer 1960
Saprobic mushroom on fallen wood. A single species, distinctive with bright yellow, shaggy cap and white gills. Quite common, although few collections in herbaria.
Cystoagaricus Singer 1947

A saprobe on well-rotted wood. A single species is known for New Zealand. This species is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions but has been found rarely in New Zealand.

Cystoderma Fayod 1889

Medium sized, fleshy mushrooms, sometimes developing in groups. Characterised by the mealy, powdery appearannce of the cap, due to the loose layer of globose cells on the pileipellis. Veil remnants on stipe but not forming a persistent ring. Spores white, smooth, inamyloid; gills adnexed to adnate.

Two species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Cyttaria Berk. 1842 [1845]

The beech strawberry. Parasite of silver beech, the large, globose, fruiting bodies developing in clusters on galls on living branches.

Three species in New Zealand, related to species in Australia and South America that are also parasites of Nothofagus.

The beech strawberry. Parasite of silver beech, the large, globose, fruiting bodies developing in clusters on galls on living branches. Three species in New Zealand, related to species in Australia and South America, also found as parasites of Nothofagus.
Dacrymyces Nees 1816-17

A member of the Dacrymycetales (the Order characterised by the furcate basidia - forked with 2 long terminal branches and 2 sterigmata), and within the Order characterised by fruiting body applanate, pustulate, cerebriform, rarely stipitate with a lobed pileus, hymenium amphigenous, occasionally discoid and then distinguished from Heterotectus and Guepiniopsis by the lack of septate hairs on the abhymenial surface.

Saprobic on wood.

Eight species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Dacryopinax G.W. Martin 1948

A member of the Dacrymycetales (the Order characterised by the furcate basidia - forked with 2 long terminal branches and 2 sterigmata), and within the Order characterised by fruiting body stipitate-piletae, spathulate, cupulate, flabellate or foliose, hymenium inferior, unilateral or confined to interior of cup, abhymenial surface covered with usually thick-walled hairs.

A single New Zealand species, saprobic on wood.

Daldinia Ces. & De Not. 1863
Woody, large, hemispherical, dark brown to black fruititng bodies (sometimes pale brown when young). Internally the flesh is patterned with concentric bands. The are at least three species in New Zealand, although the name Daldinia concentrica (not present in New Zealand) has often been used incorrectly in the past.
Large, black to purplish, hemisphaerical, very hard fruiting bodies. Developing saprobically on fallen wood. Often found with the inside of the fruiting body completely eaten by insects. Taxonomically poorly understood, 4 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.
Datronia Donk 1966
Polypore fungi with resupinate to pileate fruiting bodies, associated with white rot of fallen wood. A single New Zealand species.
Deflexula Corner 1950
Saprobic on dead wood, fruiting bodies narrow, smooth, tapering, pendulous. A single New Zealand species.
Dendrothele Höhn. & Litsch. 1907

Corticioid fungi on fallen wood. Hymenial surface smooth, often heavily grazed by insects during dry weather, the hymenium growing agin when wet.

Taxonomically poorly understood, at least 8 species reported from New Zealand under this name, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Dermatea fumosa Cooke & W. Phillips 1879
ITS gene tree showing 'Dermatea' fumosa phylogenetically isolated within Rhytismataceae.
Dermocybe (Fr.) Wünsche 1877

Ectomycorrhizal Cortinarius-like mushrooms on soil under Nothofagus and tea-tree. Distinguished from Cortinarius by the bright, yellow or red, water-soluable pigments.

More than 15 species species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Dermoloma J.E. Lange ex Herink 1959 [1958]

Medium sized, fleshy mushrooms, saprobic on wood or soil. Cap smooth with the pileipellis hymeniform with clavate cells; no veil remnants; gills adnexed to adnate. Spores white, smooth, amyloid or inamyloid.

Two species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Descolea Singer 1950

Cap brown to dark brown, often with scales, usually dry. Stalk with well-developed ring with prominent striations. Spore print brown.

Always on soil, ectomycorrhizal under Nothofagus and tea-tree. There are three species in New Zealand, two of these known also from Australia. D. gunnii is commonly found under tea-tree, D. majestatica and D. phlebophora may be restricted to Nothofagus.

Descolea has the appearance of a small Rozites, but Rozites tends to have strongly glutinous caps, and Descolea dryish caps. The only certain way to distinguish the genera is to examine the microscopic structure of the cap.

Ectomycorrhizal mushrooms on soil under Nothofagus and tea-tree. Characterised by a thick, persistent, ribbed ring on the stalk. Morphologically very similar to Rozites.

D. gunnii appears to be a 'weedy' species, often associated with nursery-grown tea-tree.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Descomyces Bougher & Castellano 1993

Truffle-like, ectomycorrhizal fungi traditionally placed in the polyphyletic Hymenogaster (traditionally characterised by lacking a columella and by having basal rhizomorphs). Descomyces is characterised by its distinctive spore morphology (smooth rostrum and ornamentation buried in the perisporium) and having a two-layered peridium with swollen cells. Genetically closely related to Descolea.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Diachea Fr. 1825

Fruiting body stalked sporangium, stalk with lime, but lime lacking from sporangial wall. Outer wall layer persistent. Spore mass dark. One species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Diacheopsis Meyl. 1930

Fruiting body sessile sporangium. Outer wall layer usually persistent, usually iridescent. Spore mass dark. Two species in New Zealand. Easily confused with sessile Lamproderma species.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Dianema Rex 1891

Fruiting body a sessile sporangium or forming a branched network across the substrate. Spores yellow or pinkish. Three species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Diaporthe sarmenticia Sacc. 1878
Anamorph: Phomopsis sarmentella (Sacc.) Traverso (1906). Alpha-conidia 5-6 x 2-3 µm. Teleomorph: barely visible on the host surface, internally with a black zone line. Ascomata ca 300 µm diam., gregarious, immersed in bark or with the base sunk into the wood, ostioles scarcely exceeding the epidermis. Asci 45 x 7-8 µm. Ascospores 10 x 4-5 µm, cylindrical, constricted at the septum, 4-guttulate, initally with a gelatinous sheath. Description contributed by Graham Kinsey, CABI.
Dicephalospora Spooner 1987
NZ species placed in Dicephalospora include D. rufo-cornea and D. chrysotricha. Neither are congeneric with Dicepahlospora sesnu Han et al. 2014 or Zheng & Zhuang 2019.
Zheng & Zhuang 2019, MycoKeys 55: 87–99 (2019); doi: 10.3897/mycokeys.55.33859.
Han JG, Hosoya T, Sung GH, Shin HD (2014) Phylogenetic reassessment of Hyaloscyphaceae sensu lato (Helotiales, Leotiomycetes) based on multigene analyses. Fungal Biology 118: 150–167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funbio.2013.11.004
Dichomitus D.A. Reid 1965
Polypore fungi forming a thin crust on dead wood, causing a white rot. Two species from New Zealand, D. newhookii is endemic.
Dichostereum Pilát 1926
Corticioid fungi on fallen wood. Two species in New Zealand.
Dictydiaethalium Rostaf. 1873

Fruiting body of numerous cylindrical sporangia compacted into a flat palisade layer. Spores brown or yellow-brown. One species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Diderma Pers. 1794

Fruiting body stalked or sessile sporangium, sometimes a tubular network on surface of substrate, wall with lime, lime granular. Wall often distinctly comprising two layers. Spore mass dark. One species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Didymium Schrad. 1797

Fruiting body stalked or sessile sporangium, sometimes a tubular network on surface of substrate, wall thin, with a crust of lime. Spore mass dark. Ten species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Diplodia pseudoseriata C.A. Pérez, Blanchette, Slippers & M.J. Wingf. 2010

Phillips et al. 2012 (http://dx.doi.org/10.3767/003158512X658899) placed Diplodia alatafructa in synonymy with the earlier name D. pseudoseriata. These species belong in a single clade within Diplodia, although there is some genetic variation within that clade. Based on btub and TEF, the type isolates of D. pseudoseriata, D. alatafructa, and D. insularis are all in the D. pseudoseriata complex, as are isolates identified as D. pterocarpi. Btub sequences distinguish quite well the types of D. pseudoseriata, D. alatafructa and D. insularis, and the D. pterocarpi isolates. TEF does not distinguish D. pseudoseriata and D. alatafructa well, but the other species are distinct. Later authors (e.g. Zhang et al. 2021, https://doi.org/10.3767/persoonia.2021.46.03; Bezzera et al. 2021, https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10030492) have followed the D. pseudoseriata species complex concept of Phillips et al. (2012).

Based on btub and TEF sequences, ICMP 14110 belongs in the D. pseudoseriata species complex. The btub sequence from ICMP 14110 is very close to the accessions identified as D. pterocarpi, but their TEF sequences differ. Based on TEF sequences, ICMP 14110 is genetically very close to a specimen from Acacia in Queensland, BRIP 52819 (GenBank MH102230); a btub sequence is not available for BRIP 52819. Note that the New Zealand isolate ICMP 14110 was collected from a dead twig in vegetation restoration site that includes naturalised Acacia.

Diplomitoporus Domański 1970
Polypore fungi with resupinate to reflexed fruitng bodies, causing a white rot on dead wood. A single New Zealand species.
Ditiola Fr. 1822

A member of the Dacrymycetales (the Order characterised by the furcate basidia - forked with 2 long terminal branches and 2 sterigmata), and within the Order characterised by a stipitate and pileate fruiting body with heterogenous hyphae, thick-walled in stipe, thin-walled in pileus. Saprobic on wood.

New Zealand record of the genus based on unpublished reports.

Ebollia valdiviensis (Speg.) Minter & Caine 1980
Series of images prepared by PR Johnston from the type specimen of Ebollia valdiviensis, in the early 1980's
Echinochaete D.A. Reid 1963
Bracket fungi with narrow point of attachment. A single species in New Zealand, the upper surface slightly pinkish when young, flaky in texture with age.
Echinostelium de Bary 1873

Fruiting body a tiny stalked sporangium, the stalk tapering to apex, translucent or pallid. Fruiting body small, less than 0.5 mm tall, delicate, stalked. Spore mass white, cream, grey or pink. Three species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Eichleriella Bres. 1903

A member of the Tremellales (the Order characterised by cruciately septate basidia, each sterigma having its own cell). The fruiting bodies are more or less flattened against the substrate, coriaceous with a well-developed basal layer, the margins often folding away from the substrate when dry. Saprobic on wood.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand.

Enerthenema Bowman 1830

Fruiting body stalked sporangium, more than 0.5 mm tall, stalk hollow. Outer wall layer lost with maturity. Spore mass dark. One species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Entoloma (Fr.) P. Kumm. 1871

Small to medium sized, always on soil, cap smooth, gills attached to stalk, stalk central, without ring, spore print pink (gills typically with pinkish bloom when mature).

More than 60 species have been reported for New Zealand. Often difficult to identify to species level. Colour is an important character, but the differences in colour are often subtle, and colour is influenced by age of the mushroom, and its exposure to rain and sun. A few of the common species are illustratated below to give a feel for the variety within the genus.

There are other common pink-spored mushrooms on soil which can sometimes be distinguished with certainty only by using microscopic characters, and these include Rhodocybe (most species large, and most with the cap sunken in the centre), Volvariella (see Large Mushrooms on Soil), and Lepista (larger, in New Zealand known only from urban situations).

A large genus of mostly small mushrooms, common on soil throughout New Zealand's forests. Characterised by pink, angular spores. Although the genus is easy to recognise, individual species are often difficult to identify, with subtle differences in colour of the cap and stalk.

About 60 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Erionema Penz. 1898

Fruiting body forming a tubular, branches, anastomosing three-dimensional network on surface of substrate, wall yellow, often encrusted with lime. Spore mass dark. One species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Erioscyphella brasiliensis (Mont.) Baral, Šandová & Perić 2014

NZ isolates referred to Erioscyphella brasiliensis consistently have 4 bp different in the ITS2 region compared with the Asian isolates identified as E. brasliensis with sequences accessioned into GenBank and that are accepted by Peric & Baral (Mycol. Monten. 17: 89-104, 2014) as E. brasiliensis.

The morphology of the NZ specimens agree exactly with the descriptions of Haines & Dumont (Mycotaxon 19: 1-40, 1984, as Lachnum brasiliense) and Medel et al. (Mycotaxon 124: 73-85, 2013, as Lachnum brasiliense), including the reportedly characteristic blue-black pigmentation at the base of the stipe. How the New Zealand and Asian specimens would compare genetically to specimens from the type location of tropical America is not known.

Phylogenetically E. brasiliensis has a sister relationhip to E. abnormis, a species that shows a similar level of genetic diversity to E. brasiliensis. Lachnum nothofagi, common in New Zealand on dry bark of fallen Nothofagus, is morphologically very similar to E. brasliense, but the two species are phylogentically distinct. When dry the hymenium is darker and the hairs not so white; the ascospores are perhaps a bit shorter and more often 1-septate. Based on specimens with sequences, only L. nothofagi has not been found on Nothofagus in New Zealand.

Exidiopsis (Bref.) Möller 1895

A member of the Tremellales (the Order characterised by cruciately septate basidia, each sterigma having its own cell). The fruiting bodies are more or less flattened against the substrate, gelatinous. Distuinguished from similar genera, such as Eichleriella and Sebacina, by microscopica features of the sterile cells surrounding the basidia. Saprobic on wood.

Four species have been reported from New Zealand.

Farysia Racib. 1909

Infecting seeds of Carex, spore masses intermixed with sterile elements. Spores olivaceous to dark brown, spore walls verrucose.

There are 4 species in New Zealand, all indigenous.

Favolaschia (Pat.) Pat. 1892

The pores on the undersides of the caps suggest a relationship with the boletes, but Favolaschia is in fact related to the mushroom Mycena. Fruiting bodies are small, but often found in large numbers.

There are 3 native species, F. pustulosa on fallen wood, and F. cyatheae and F. austrocyatheae on dead tree fern fronds. The tree fern-inhabiting species have been misidentified n the New Zealand literature as the Japanese palm-inhabiting species, F. peziziformis. Favolaschia minima, a tiny species found on dead leaves of native grasses and sedges, is now placed in Panellus, based on a molecular study.

The pores on the undersides of the caps suggest a relationship with the boletes, but Favolaschia is in fact related to the mushroom Mycena. Fruiting bodies are small, but often found in large numbers.

There are 3 native species, F. pustulosa on fallen wood, and F. cyatheae and F. austrocyatheae on dead tree fern fronds. The tree fern-inhabiting species have been referred in the New Zealand literature to a Japanese palm-inhabiting species, F. peziziformis. Favolaschia minima, a tiny species found on dead leaves of native grasses and sedges, is now placed in Panellus, based on a molecular study.

Flagelloscypha Donk 1951 [1949]

Basidiomycetes with small, hairy, cup-shaped fruiting bodies. Saprobic on fallen wood.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Flammulaster Earle 1909

Phaeomarasmius and Flammulaster are morphologically and biologically similar, both small, brown-spored mushrooms saprobic on dead wood and rotting leaves. The genera are distinguished by subtle differences in pileipellis structure.

Several of the New Zealand species are found also in South America. Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Flammulina P. Karst. 1891
Saprobic on dead wood, often dead, standing wood. The brightly coloured, gregarious F. velutipes is common, the second species is small and insignificant, and known from a single collection.
Fomes (Fr.) Fr. 1849
Represented in New Zealand by a single common species on usually dead wood of many hosts, forming perennial, bracket-shaped to crust-like fruiting bodies, of solid texture but slightly flexible under pressure. Causing a brown rot and thought responsible for much of the brown rot seen in Nothofagus forests.

Polypore fungi with large, perennial, bracket-shaped fruiting bodies. Causing a white rot.

One species in New Zealand.

Fuligo Haller 1768

Fruiting body irregular in shape, large, a mass of tangled, calcarious tubes surrounded by lime-encrusted wall. Spore mass dark. Two species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Galerina Earle 1909

Small brown mushrooms on wood with cinnamon-brown spore print. The common Galerina patagonica has a distinctive small point in the centre of the cap, develops in groups on large pieces of fallen wood, and has a well-developed ring on the stalk.

There are several species in New Zealand, with only Galerina patagonica (widespread in the Southern Hemisphere) common.

Hypholoma acutum is similar in shape, also develops in clusters on fallen wood, but lacks a ring on the stalk and has a greenish tinge to the gills.

Small but quite robust mushrooms on fallen wood and soil. G. patagonica, characterised by the small, pointed centre to its cap, is quite common on wood in forests. The genus includes some of the most poisonous mushrooms in New Zealand.

Seven species, some undescribed, have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Gallacea Lloyd 1905

A truffle-like fungus characterised by the fruiting body having a gelatinous internal columella, minute anastomosing canals lined by spore-bearing cells and smooth, elliptical spores.

The three New Zealand species are all endemic, and ectomycorrhizal with beech and tea-tree.

Distinguished from Hysterangium because of the tendency for large schizogenous cavities to develop in the internal tissue, and the absence of an utricle (a loose outer covering) from the spores.

Truffle-like fungus with fruiting body with columella, spores smooth, elliptical. Distinguished from Hysterangium because of the absence of an utricle (loose outer covering) from the spore and the tendency for large schizogenous cavities to develop in the gleba.

Probably ectomycorrhizal with beech and tea-tree.

Three New Zealand species.

Ganoderma P. Karst. 1881
Woody-hard, bracket-shaped fruiting bodies on wood, mostly saprobic on dead wood but sometimes also (weakly) parasitic on living trees. Fruit bodies are perennial, forming a new layer of tubes each year beneath the previous one, like growth rings of a tree. The lower surface consists of pores, the opening of tubes in which spores are produced. During active growth, this pore surface is white, but readily turns brown when touched, hence the common name of "Artist's Conk" for a related species in the Northern Hemisphere. Both common species have a dull-coloured upper surface; the only other New Zealand species is very rare and has a shiny upper surface. Spores are thick-walled and brown, and produced in vast numbers - often seen as a brown dust below fruiting bodies or sometimes deposited by wind eddies back on top of the fruiting body.

Large polypore fungi forming bracket-shaped, perennial fruiting bodies on dead or sometimes living wood. Causing a white rot.

At least 5 species reported from New Zealand, some undescribed. Only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Geastrum Pers. 1801

The earth-stars, distinctive in that the inner spore case, which resembles a simple puffball, is surrounded at maturity by the star-like arms of the outer wall layer. Geastrum species are usually found in forests, and these arms serve to elevate the inner spore case from its immediate surroundings to help with spore dispersal by wind and rain.

There are 10 species reported from New Zealand.

Earthstars, with the puff-ball like centre part being revealed as the outer layer splits and folds back in the shape of several petals. Saprobic on soil.

At least 10 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Geoglossum Pers. 1794

Black, tough-fleshed, narrow, upright fruiting bodies on soil, up to about 5 cm tall. The are 4 or more species of Geoglossum in New Zealand. The genus is poorly understood both here and elsewhere in the world. Trichoglossum looks very similar, but the fruiting body has tiny, dark, stiff setae (bristles). New Zealand has 3, 4, or possibly more Trichoglossum species.

Always on soil, often associated with thick carpets of moss, but ecology poorly understood. There are very few collections from the South Island.

Although traditionally grouped with the cup fungi, the dark, multiseptate spores of these genera do not fit well into this group. Recent molecular studies have shown them to be phylogenetically distinct. A new Class Geoglossomycetes has been proposed by some authors, but uncertainty remains about the true higher relationships of these fungi.

Black, upright, fleshy fruiting bodies. Discomycetes, with the outside of the upper part of the fruiting body covered with the fertile layer, with a sterile base. Saprobic on soil.

Taxonomically poorly understood, 3 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Gigasperma E. Horak 1971
A truffle-like fungus with large, globose spores. Ectomycorrhizal, known only from under Nothofagus.
Gliophorus Herink 1959 [1958]

Gliophorus is one of the wax-gill mushrooms, a group of small, brightly-coloured, saprobic, soil-inhabiting fungi which have brittle flesh with a waxy feel when crushed between the fingers. The main genera of wax-gills are Hygrophorus, Humidicutis, Hygrocybe and Gliophorus. Gliophorus is recognised by the thick glutinous coating over the surface, the caps of Humidicutis are characteristically deeply split at the sides, the other genera distinguished on the basis of microscopic features of hyphae in the gills and the cap. Gills broadly attached to stalk or extending down the stalk, no ring on stalk. Spore print white.

There are at least 12 Gliophorus species reported for New Zealand, about half endemic. Some mycologisist do not accept that the glutinous covering found on Gliophorus species is a sufficiently important character to define a genus, and species in this genus may sometimes be seen refered to Hygrocybe.

Brightly coloured wax-gills saprobic on soil and litter. Included in Hygrocybe by some authors, the genus is characterised by a very thick gelatinous coating on the cap.

Twelve species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Globisporangium intermedium (de Bary) Uzuhashi, Tojo & Kakish. 2010
The presence of Globisporangium intermedium in NZ is uncertain. The initial occurrence was recorded by Robertson (1980) on Olearia sp. but based on a personal communication by H.C. Smith. This was subsequently picked up by Pennycook (1989), and Gadgil et al. (2005). However as of November 2022, there are no cultures in ICMP of this species, and no records in GenBank from New Zealand that closely match this species. Vetukuri et al. (2020) [10.1016/j.apsoil.2019.103475] examined New Zealand and Swedish soils under Solanum and only found G. intermedium in Sweden.
Gloeocystidiellum Donk 1931

Corticioid fungi with white, smooth surface, having a well-defined edge to the fruiting body, light coloured fruiting body on the underside of decaying wood. Macroscopically it could be confused with other genera of corticioid fungi.Distinguished by microscopic features including special sterile elements (gloeocystidia) and spores with a distinct blueing reaction in Melzer’s reagent (containing iodine). It is a group of common wood-decay fungi causing a white rot (i.e. they produce enzymes that can degrade all components of wood cell walls).

Taxonomically poorly understood, there may be 4 or 5 species in New Zealand.

Corticioid fungus forming thin cream to pale yellow crusts on dead wood.

Taxonomically poorly understood, there may be 4 or 5 species in New Zealand. Only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Gloeophyllum (P. Karst.) P. Karst. 1882

Brackets are relatively thin (less than 1 cm thick in the 3 New Zealand species) and have a distinctive lower surface of thickened and branched gill-like ridges or a cross between radially arranged gills and pores.

In production pine forests, G. sepiarium is a common species.

Polypore fungi with large, bracket-shaped fruiting bodies. Three species in New Zealand.
Gloeoporus Mont. 1842
Fruiting bodies small and with lower poroid surface. The most distinctive of three NZ species of Gloeoporus is the all-white G. phlebophorus.

Polypore with crust-like or bracket-shaped fruiting bodies. Causing a white rot.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Gloiocephala Massee 1892

Most species with tiny, white, highly-reduced fruiting bodies, with the appearance of small, stalked cups. Gloiocephala rubescens is larger, with fold-like gills. Saprobic. Anastrophella is similar to some of the very small species, but its cap is oriented downwards.

Six species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Glutinomyces Nor. Nakam. 2017
See Manaaki Whenua Datastore Hyphodiscaecae in New Zealand https://doi.org/10.7931/hk6f-fy05
Gomphus (Pers.) Pers. 1797

Saprobic amongst litter, these quite robust, fleshy fungi have a hymenial surface almost smooth, or with irregular shallow folds.

Two New Zealand species.

Grifola Gray 1821
Large, irregularly-lobed, leathery, dark fruiting bodies with many layers along the infected wood. One or two species in New Zealand.
Guepiniopsis Pat. 1883

A member of the Dacrymycetales (the Order characterised by the furcate basidia - forked with 2 long terminal branches and 2 sterigmata), and within the Order characterised by fruiting body cupulate or discoid, stipitate to substipitate, hymenium resticted to interior of cup, distinguished from Heterotextus by the abhymenial surface of septate hyphae, individual cells becoming thick-walled, inflated, appearing catenulate.

A single New Zealand species, saprobic on wood.

Gymnomyces Massee & Rodway 1898

Partly buried, truffle-like fungi. The spores with amyloid ornamentation show a relationship with Russula. Six species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images and/or descriptions available in the Virtual Myctoa.

Gymnopilus P. Karst. 1879

Fleshy mushrooms always on wood, cap dry, finely felty, gills covered with a veil when young, often the remains of the veil form a ring on the central stalk. Spore print rusty brown to orange. Often growing in clumps. The species are variable in size, the large G. junonoius often more than 10 cm across, while some of the less commonly seen species (not treated here) are only 1-2 cm.

Saprobic. the spectacular G. junonius often seen in large clumps on fallen wood.

The large Pholiota species are similar in habit and shape to Gymnopilus, but they differ in having a slimy, scaly cap, and a dull, cinnamon-brown spore print.

Medium-sized to large mushrooms saprobic on fallen wood. Spore print rusty-brown, spores rough-walled with no pore.

The large, bright golden-yellow G. junonius is commonly found in human habitats, and may have been introduced to New Zealand by humans.

Five species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Gyromitra Fr. 1849

The false morels. These large operculate discomycetes have lobed and distorted, sometimes saddle-shaped caps and well-defined stalks.

There are at least two species in New Zealand, the indigenous G. tasmanica and the exotic G. infula. Both are poisonous.

Superficially similar in shape to the morels, but lacking the well-ordered network of ridges found in the morels (see Morchella).

Gyroporus Quél. 1886
One species in New Zealand, ectomycorrhizal under tea-tree. The genus is characterised amongst boletes by a yellow spore print.
Hamaspora Körn. 1877

The sexual teleutospores are formed in erumpent, paraphysate sori. The teleutospores are aggregated into fibrillose filaments, have a single germ pore in each cell, and have long, persistent pedicells.

There is a single species in New Zealand, associated with native Rubus spp.

Hamatocanthoscypha Svrček 1977
Two Hamatocanthoscypha specimens from NZ have ITS sequences available (PDD 104295 (D2346), PDD 104227 (D2116)). These are probably congeneric with a TNS specimen identified as H. laricionis. Based on ITS, they are also close to the two Infundichalara species. See attached phylogeny and notes.
Hebeloma (Fr.) P. Kumm. 1871
Small to medium sized mushrooms on soil. Flesh often with a radish-like odour. Seven species have been reported for New Zealand, most apparently exotic. Only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.
Heimiomyces Singer 1942

Medium sized mushrooms, saprobic on wood. Cap velutinous, no veil remnants, lamellae broadly attached. Pileipellis hyphae and cheilocystidia diverticulate. Spores white, smooth, nonamyloid.

Two New Zealand species.

Helicogermslita Lodha & D. Hawksw. 1983

Solitary globose perithecia, raised slightly around the central ostiole, usually remaining slightly immersed at the base.

Four species have been reported from New Zealand, all endemic.

Helicogloea Pat. 1892

Corticioid fungi. Saprobes on dead wood.

One or two species reported from New Zealand.

Helotium pateriforme (Berk.) Cooke 1883
Images of Kew Fungarium specimens provided by Paul Kirk
Helotium phormium Cooke 1879

Helotium phormium was named by Cooke in 1879 from a single New Zealand specimen collected on dead Phormium leaves. The original illustrations attached to the type specimen in Kew show more or less clavate, slightly curved ascospores. The illustrations from the same specimen in Dennis (1961) have ascospores that are straighter, more cylindric and tapering more or less evenly to both ends.

This fungus is very common on dead Phormium leaves in New Zealand. It varies somewhat in ascospore shape (some specimens with ascosopres matching exactly the Cooke illustration, others tapering more or less uniformly to each narrow rounded end, often with gel caps or small frills at the ends of the spores).

Based on ITS sequences (see image of ITS gene tree under H. phormium) H. phormium is closely related to Hymenoscyphus caudatus. H. caudatus has been treated as a species complex by authors such as Baral (Sydowia 58: 145-162, 2006) and Dennis (Mycological Papers 62: 1-216, 1956). Baral discussed differences in development of croziers at the ascus base, ascospore shape, and paraphysis morphology between some of the populations within this species complex. H. phormium appears to be Phormium-specialised and has larger ascospores than given for H. caudatus by Dennis 1956. NZFungi has previously incorrectly reported this species as Dicephalosporium rufocornea.

Hymenoscyphus sensu stricto (sensu Baral 2006) is rare in New Zealand. Apart from Helotium phormium, four other Hymenoscyphus sensu stricto isolates have been sequenced. All four are from exotic hosts - PDD 105204 from Rubus fruticosus has an ITS and morphology that matches H. caudatus; PDD 117703 has an ITS sequence close to H. macroguttulatus but differs morphologically; ICMP 14420 and ICMP 17116 have matching ITS sequences are were isolated from nashi fruit rots in orchards.

Hemimycena Singer 1938
Tiny, white, highly-reduced fruiting bodies, with a stalk and smooth hymenial surface. Saprobic on dead plant tissue. Two species have been reported from New Zealand.
Hemitrichia Rostaf. 1873

Fruiting body a sessile or stalked sporangium, or tubular network across surface of substrate. Sterile filaments amongst the spores highly sculptured, spore mass red or yellow. After the wall of the fruiting body breaks the elastic filaments amongst the spores expand in a tangled mass. Four species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Henningsomyces Kuntze 1898

Saprobes on wood. Cyphelloid basidiomycetes, the fruiting body comprising large numbers of tiny white tubes, seperate but gregarious. Henningsomyces has at least some of the hairs on the outside of the fruiting bodies branched; Rectipilus has hairs not branched.

A single species reported from New Zealand.

Hericium Pers. 1794

Known popularly as fungus icicles. Large, cascading masses of narrow, down-ward projecting, tapering white branches. Saprobic on wood.

Distinguished from most fungi included in this group, because the branches of the fruiting body hang downwards. A single native New Zealand species.

Fugus icicles. Large, cascading masses of narrow, down-ward projecting, white branches. Saprobic on wood. A single New Zealand species.
Heterobasidion Bref. 1888 [1889]
Forming annual to occasionally perennial fruiting bodies, represented by a single species in New Zealand. The dark upper surface contrasts with the cream lower poroid surface. Almost exclusively on Kauri.
Heterotextus Lloyd 1922

A member of the Dacrymycetales (the Order characterised by the furcate basidia - forked with 2 long terminal branches and 2 sterigmata), and within the Order characterised by fruiting body cupulate or discoid, stipitate to substipitate, hymenium resticted to interior of cup, abhymenial surface of thick-walled, broadly cylindric to obclavate cells forming a palisade.

Saprobic on wood.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Hjortstamia Boidin & Gilles 2002
Corticioid fungi on dead wood, basidiocarps resupinate with narrow, reflexed margin. The single New Zealand species, H. crassa, is common on a wide range of native and exotic hosts.
Hohenbuehelia Schulzer 1866

Fleshy fungi attached to the substrate directly from the side of the cap, or through a short stalk at one side of the cap, cap smooth, spore print white.

Saprobic

Eight species of Hohenbuehelia have been reported for New Zealand, but most are poorly understood taxonomically.

Three common superficially similar New Zealand genera share these features. Pleurotus has a soft cap with easily broken flesh. Pleurotopsis and Hohenbuehelia have a gelatinous layer beneath the surface of the cap, making the flesh difficult to break. All saprobic. Conchomyces has a similar habit, but no images are available for this genus. It is distinguished by the spore walls covered by conspicuous, conical spines.

Sparobes on dead wood. Medium to large, fleshy mushrooms with a short lateral stipe or no stipe. Pleurotus-like, but with gelatinous tissue beneath the pileipellis.

Eight species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Humidicutis (Singer) Singer 1959 [1958]

Humidicutis is one of the wax-gill mushrooms, a group of small, brightly-coloured, saprobic, soil-inhabiting fungi which have brittle flesh with a waxy feel when crushed between the fingers. The main genera of wax-gills are Hygrophorus, Humidicutis, Hygrocybe and Gliophorus. Gliophorus is recognised by the thick glutinous coating over the surface, the caps of Humidicutis are typically characteristically deeply split at the sides, the other genera distinguished on the basis of microscopic features of hyphae in the gills and the cap. Gills broadly attached to stalk, no ring on stalk. Spore print white.

There are 5 species ofHumidicutis reported from New Zealand, 3 of which are endemic.

Wax-gills saprobic on soil and litter. Included in Hygrocybe by some authors. Cap dry, pileipellis a cutis.

Five species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Hydnangium Wallr. 1839

A mycorrhizal, truffle-like fungus. The single species known from New Zealand (H. carneum) is found under both native (tea-tree) and exotic (Eucalyptus) trees. Probably native to New Zealand.

Other species referred to Hydnangium in the past, are now placed in a range of other genera.

Hydnum L. 1753

Mushroom-like fruiting bodies with teeth rather than gills on underside, stalk often somewhat eccentric.

Ectomycorrhizal under Nothofagus and tea-tree.

Several subspecies have been described for H. crocidens which appear to be specialised with respect to substrate. Under tea-tree hosts are Hydnum crocidens var. badium (with a dark brown cap) and Hydnum crocidens var. crocidens (with a dirty-whitish cap with irregular reddish or rusty-brown patches). Under Nothofagus is Hydnum crocidens var. wellingtonii, similar in appearance to Hydnum crocidens var. crocidens, but with slightly larger spores.

Mushroom-like fruiting bodies with teeth rather than gills, stipe often somewhat eccentric. Ectomycorrhizal under beech and tea-tree, some specialisation amongst the H. crocidens subspecific taxa with respect to substrate.

Six species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Hydrocinaceae Ekanayaka & K.D. Hyde 2019
Hydrocinaceae sensu Ekanayaka et al. 2019 includes Hydrocina, Clathrosporium, Filosporella, Varicosporium and Xerombrophila. However, in the phylogeny supporting this classification, Varicosporium was represented by V. delicatum, phylogenetically distant to the type species (V. elodeae, Discinellaceae); Xerombrophila, on a very long branch in their analysis, is weakly supported as Gelatinodiscaceae in multi-gene analyses; Filosporella is polyphyletic based on sampled specimens but the type species has not been sequenced. A clade in the Johnston et al. 2019 (doi 10.1186/s43008-019-0002-x) multigene tree places 'Varicosporium' delicatum and the Filosporella specimens treated by Ekanayaka in a well-supported clade amongst the mollisioid families, a clade that presumably represents Hydrocinaceae (Hydrocina has only rDNA sequences so was not treated in the Johnston et al. 2019 analysis). A recent ITS analysis places Hydrocina in a well-resolved clade with Clathrosporium, 'Varicosporium' delicatum and the Filosporella specimen treated by Ekanayaka. This clade is sister to Gelatinodiscaceae in the ITS tree, but phylogenetically more distant in the multi-gene analysis.
Hydropus Kühner ex Singer 1948 [1946]

Medium sized mushrooms, saprobic on wood with a lateral or eccentric stipe. No veil remnants; spores white, nonamyloid; pileipellis a palisade of erect cylindric to clavate cells.

A single New Zealand species.

Hygrocybe (Fr.) P. Kumm. 1871

Hygrocybe is one of the wax-gill mushrooms, a group of small, brightly-coloured, saprobic, soil-inhabiting fungi which have brittle flesh with a waxy feel when crushed between the fingers. The main genera of wax-gills are Hygrophorus, Humidicutis, Hygrocybe and Gliophorus. Gliophorus is recognised by the thick glutinous coating over the surface, the caps of Humidicutis are characteristically deeply split at the sides, the other genera distinguished on the basis of microscopic features of hyphae in the gills and the cap. Gills broadly attached to stalk or extending down the stalk, no ring on stalk. Spore print white.

There are more than 20 species reported from New Zealand, most indigenous, but a few found in urbans areas that appear to match Northern Hemisphere species are thought to be introduced exotics.

Wax-gills saprobic on soil and litter. Included in Hygrocybe by some authors. Cap viscid when moist, stipe viscis or dry, pileipellis a cutis.

More than 20 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Hygrophoropsis (J. Schröt.) Maire ex Martin-Sans 1929

Fruiting bodies dry, umbilictae, gills decurrent and typically repeatedly branched. Distinguished from Paxillus by having a white spore print.

Ectomycorrhizal under beech and tea-tree.

Two species in New Zealand.

Hygrophorus Fr. 1836

Hygrophorus is one of the wax-gill mushrooms, a group of small, mostly brightly-coloured, saprobic, soil-inhabiting fungi which have brittle flesh with a waxy feel when crushed between the fingers. The main genera of wax-gills are Hygrophorus, Humidicutis, Hygrocybe and Gliophorus. Hygrophorus species are typically dull in colour. Gliophorus is recognised by the thick glutinous coating over the surface, the caps of Humidicutis are characteristically deeply split at the sides, the other genera distinguished on the basis of microscopic features of hyphae in the gills and the cap. Gills broadly attached to stalk or extending down the stalk, no ring on stalk. Spore print white.

There are about 10 species reported from New Zealand, but some of the names are old and of doubtful value. Most species are rather dull in colour and known from very few collections.

Wax-gills, possibly ectomycorrhizal. Distinguished from other wax gills by having divergent gill trama.

About 6 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Hygrotrama Singer 1959 [1958]
Wax-gills, saprobic on soil or litter. Distinguished from other wax gills with non-divergent gill trama by the hymeniform pileipellis. Some authors include this genus in Camarophyllopsis. A single New Zealand species.
Hymenochaete Lév. 1846

Corticioid fungi forming red or brown, crust-like or pileate (shelf-like) fruiting bodies on the underside or upper part of dead wood. This genus is distinguished by forming setae (bristle-like structures) and fruiting bodies of various shades of brown or red. Members of this genus cause a white rot.

Taxonomically poorly understood, there may be more than 30 species in New Zealand.

Corticioid fungi forming brown, crust-like fruiting bodies on dead wood, causing a white rot.

Taxonomically poorly understood, there may be more than 30 species in New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Hymenogaster Vittad. 1831

Truffle-like, ectomycorrhizal fungi. Hymenogaster in its traditional sense is polyphyletic, and characterised by lacking a columella and by having basal rhizomorphs. In its strict sense, Hymenogaster is characterised by its large, thick-walled, broad-ellipsoid to fusiform spores with a large, cupped hilar appendix.

Represented by a single species in New Zealand, reported by Cunningham, but with apparently no specimens in PDD.

Hymenoscyphus Gray 1821

Gen. prov. ‘Macroalborubra’

On partly decomposed litter. The whole clade has species with fresh discs 7-10 mm diam., tapering gradually to substipitate base, white, staining yellow, orange or reddish with damage, receptacle surface finely felted to almost hairy; hymenium drying bright yellow or orange. Spores variable in size and shape. Cultures slow-growing and dark coloured.

Associated with Nothofagus and Metrosideros in NZ, Eucalyptus in Australia, Nothofagus in South America.

Possible PRJ South American collections that might be in this clade based on macro field notes SA40, SA54, SA62, SA157, SA254.

Hymenoscyphus sp. "tiny red" P.R. Johnst.
‘Hymenoscyphus’ sp. “tiny red”
Apothecia 0.5-0.7 mm diam., long and narrow stipe, when fresh hymenium pale yellowish, receptacle with very fine radiate pattern of orange-brown to reddish elements. Developing usually on small darkened patches on recently fallen leaves, sometimes with a narrow, black line around the edge of the darker area.
Yellow-brown to reddish pigment released into KOH. Excipulum (squash) of cylindric to short-cylindric cells with walls slightly thickened, overlaid with a layer of long-cylindric, meandering cells with walls thickly encrusted. Asci 110-120 × 11-12.5 μm, broad-cylindric, tapering slightly to broadly rounded to subtruncate apex, wall thickened at apex with tiny, amyloid pore toward the inner part of the wall, short basal region, no croziers, 8-spored, uniseriate. Ascospores 11-13 × 6-7.5 μm, ovate, symmetrical, hyaline, 0-septate.
Ascospores have a very distinctive germ pore, irregularly triangular-shaped cell, attached to spore half way along one side of the triangular cell. Consistently seen across collections.
On recently fallen leaves of Nothofagus fusca and N. solandri.
Notes
Placed within Hymenoscyphus for pragmatic reasons. Although not genetically within this genus, it is close to other species that are still named Hymenoscyphus (e.g. H. metrosideri), and cannot clearly be placed in any other current genus.
This species was not detected in any of the culturing or 454 sampling of living Nothofagus leaves.
Hymenoscyphus subsordidus (Dennis) Dennis 1964

'Hymenoscyphus' subsordidus (previously referred to the informal name Cyathicula sp. 'white foot')

Based on ITS analyses, 'Hymenoscyphus' subsordidus and specimens identified as 'Cudoniella' clavus'C'. tenuispora, Ombrophila violacea and Dendrospora tenella (an asexual aquatic hyphomycete) belong in a clade in Helotiaceae that has a sister relationship to a clade containing the type species of Cyathicula, C. coronata, and the type species of Glarea, G. lozoyensis. These taxa are phylogenetically distant from Hymenoscyphus fructigenus, the type species of Hymenoscyphus.

This clade probably represents a genus (or perhaps several genera), but no name seems to be availabale for it:
 - The type species of Cudoniella, C. queletii, is a synonym of C. acicularis, a member of Tricladiaceae, phylogentically distant from 'C'. acicularis.
 - Ombrophila violacea is the type species of Ombrophila. However, Index Fungorum regards O. violacea as a synonym of O. janthina, and an ITS sequence from a specimen identified as O. janthina by Baral (GenBank KC411996 ex HB7044) places it in Gelatinodiscaceae, phylogenetically distant to the putative O. violacea specimens related to 'Cudoniella' clavus.
 - The type species of Dendrospora, D. erecta, has no DNA sequence data available. Many morphologically-defined genera of aquatic hyphomycetes have subsequently shown to be polyphyletic meaning that the phylogentic position of Dendrospora in uncertain.

While phylogentic considerations are important for deciding generic limits, for a generic concept to be useful to humans, it must also consider morphological and ecological features. These need to be studied in detail before deciding whether the 'Cudoniella' clavus clade should represent a single genus, and what that genus should be named.

'Hymenoscyphus' subsordidus has a sister relationship with a specimen from southern Chile (GenBank MT366735, ex FLAS-F-66005), the two species with a 96.5% ITS match.

Hyphoderma Wallr. 1833

Corticioid fungi on fallen wood. A morphologiccal varaiable group of species which will probably be in the future divided into several genera.

Taxonomically poorly understood, there are at least 7 species in New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Hyphodiscaceae Ekanayaka & K.D. Hyde 2019
See Manaaki Whenua Datastore Hyphodiscaecae in New Zealand https://doi.org/10.7931/hk6f-fy05
Hyphodiscus Kirschst. 1907 [1906]
See Manaaki Whenua Datastore Hyphodiscaecae in New Zealand https://doi.org/10.7931/hk6f-fy05
Hyphodontia J. Erikss. 1958

Corticioid fungi forming white, yellowish or buff, flat adherent fruiting bodies. Hymenial (sporeproducing) surface may be smooth, cracked, or have fine teeth or pores. Macroscopically, Hyphodontia is similar to many other genera of corticioid fungi and needs to be identified by its distinct microscopic characters such as typical branching pattern of hyphae and sterile cells (cystidia).

Members of this genus are very common on the underside of dead wood and cause a white rot (i.e. they produce enzymes that can degrade all components of wood cell walls).

Taxonomically poorly understood, there are at least 12 species in New Zealand but more are likely to be identified with further study. Three species are endemic.

Corticioid fungi causing a white rot. Hymenial surface usually finely textured, the genus is characterised by a particular hyphal morphology.

Taxonomically poorly understood, there are at least 12 species in New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Hypholoma (Fr.) P. Kumm. 1871

Spore print purple-brown. Medium-sized mushrooms growing in clusters on fallen wood. Cap smooth, convex to bell-shaped, with small central peak in H. acutum, usually with scale-like veil remnants around the edge of the cap. Gills with a greenish tinge, attached to stalk. Gills covered by veil when young, but when mature the veil remnants are whispy against the stalk, not forming a proper ring.

The indigenous species H. brunneum (dark brown cap with conspicuous, paler veil remnants), H. fasciculare (yellow-brown to orange-brown cap), and H. acutum (brown cap with small central peak) are all common in New Zealand forests. This genus is sometimes referred to as Naematoloma.

Pholiota species have a similar habit, growing in clusters on fallen wood, but are generally more robust, the cap is often gelatinous, and the spore print is a cinnamon brown rather than purple-brown colour. The small, peaked cap of H. acutum has a similar form to some Galerina species, but Galerina has a rusty-brown spore print.

Saprobe on wood. Small to medium-sized, rather nondescript mushrooms, often in clusters. Very dark, purplish spore print.

Six or seven species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Hypocopra (Fr.) J. Kickx f. 1867

Solitary immersed perithecia, on dung.

Four species have been reported from New Zealand, all exotic. Only those listed below are treated in the Virtual Mycota.

Hypoxylon Bull. 1791
Hypoxylon is common in New Zealand forests, with more than 20 species recorded. The fruiting bodies are typically flat and crust like. Some are black or with dull colours, but the exceptions, such as the bright orange H. cinnabarinum, the purple H. nothofagi, and the hemispherical, purple H. howeanum, are those most often noticed.

Large fruiting bodies containing many individual perithecia, usually flattened across the host surface, the perithecia often visible as small mounds across the surface of the fruiting body. Variable in colour, from bright orange or purple, to dull brown or black.

About 25 species have been reported from New Zealand, although the genus is still poorly understood here. Only those listed below are treated in the Virtual Mycota.

Hysterangium Vittad. 1831

Truffle-like fungus with fruiting body with columella, spores smooth, elliptical. Gallacea is similar, but the spores lack a utricle (outer, loose covering) and the fruiting bodies have a tendency to develop large schizogenous cavities in the gleba.

Probably ectomycorrhizal with beech and tea-tree.

Five species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Ileodictyon Tul. & C. Tul. 1844

The basket fungus.

Ileodictyon cibarium is common and widespread, sometimes seen in large numbers on wood chip mulches. There may be another undescribed species from sand dunes, with fewer, more robust lattice-like branches than the common species.

The basket fungus.

At least two species in New Zealand, there may be a third undescribed species from sand dunes.

Ilyonectria coprosmae (Dingley) P. Chaverri & C. Salgado 2011
There are three species amongst the GenBank accessions identified as Ilyonectria coprosmae.
- the cultures GJS 85-39 = CBS 119606 (HM364301, AY295326, JF735260) and GJS 85-41 = CBS 126772 (MH864220) represent I. coprosmae.
- CTR 73-152 (AF220970) is a match I. robusta
- GJS 85-182 = CBS 123967 (AF220971) is from Sulawesi and is identified as I. destructans in the CBS specimen database.
Inocybe (Fr.) Fr. 1863

Small, dull brown mushrooms, found only on soil, most species with a dry, hairy or fibrillose cap, gills covered by cobweb-like veil when young, spore print dull brown in colour.

There are at least 12 species in New Zealand, including some exotic species (under pine and oak). In addition there are 12 species of the closely related genus Astrosporina, distinguished from Inocybe only by spore shape. The species are difficult to identify without examining microscopic features.

Ectomycorhizal. The native species are found only under tea-tree or Nothofagus, although there are also exotic species found under introduced trees, one pale species especially common under pine.

Small Cortinarius species have a similar stature, but usually with a smooth cap, and with rusty-brown or orange-brown spores compared the dull brown of Inocybe. Panaeolus and Psilocybe have very dark, purple-brown spores, Agrocybe usually on fallen wood and litter rather than soil.

Small, ectomycorrhizal mushrooms common on ground under Nothofagus and tea-tree. Characterised by a cortina-like veil on the stalk, shaggy cap, and rough-walled spores with no germ pore. Most New Zealand species are brown.

Many authors consider Astrosporina, with smooth-walled, nodulose spores, congeneric.

More than 20 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Inonotus P. Karst. 1879

Fruiting bodies with brown poroid lower surface, rather similar to Phellinus, but annual rather than perennial and with typically smaller, thinner fruiting bodies.

There are four species in New Zealand, often requiring microscopic features for identification. On native beech I. nothofagi is common and easily identified.

Polypore fungi woth small, brown, bracket-shaped fruiting bodies, causing a white rot of dead wood.

Four species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Insiticia Earle 1909

Small delicate mushrooms, saprobic on wood. A segregate genus from Mycena, characterised by a globose spores and cheilocystidia and terminal cells of pileipellis being broom-like.

Two species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Intextomyces J. Erikss. & Ryvarden 1976
Cortioid fungus on dead wood. A single, cosmopolitan species with a microscopically distinctive pattern of fruit body development.
Isaria Pers. 1794
These develop masses of powdery white spores on short stalks above the killed insect. The most common and distinctive species in New Zealand is Isaria sinclairii, common in the North Island on parasitised cicada larvae. The dead larvae are typically buried in the soil, where only the white tuft of spores is visible.
Junghuhnia Corda 1842

Polypore fungi with crust-like to pileate (shelf-like) basidiocarps causing a white rot of fallen wood. Junghuhnia meridionalis can be recognised by its orange poroid fruiting body. Junghuhnia rhinocephalus forms an initially cream fruiting body becoming brown when mature. It is easily recognized by its pleasant vanilla-like smell.

Four species have been reported from New Zealand.

Polypore fungi with crust-like to pileate basidiocarps, causing a white rot of fallen wood.

Four species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Kretzschmaria Fr. 1849

Large fruiting bodies containing many individual perithecia, usually flattened across the host surface, but quite irregular in shape, either comprising large numbers of closely packed, short-cylindric structures, or irregular overlapping plates. Spores usually large.

Two species have been reported from New Zealand, earlier reports of the Northern Hemisphere K. deusta were probably incorrect.

Laccaria Berk. & Broome 1883

Small fungi the size of a one or two dollar coin with a flattish cap that is usually either pink or violet, always on soil. The stem is central and fibrous, with no ring. They have thick and quite widely spaced gills which are flesh pink or violaceous and in older specimens are covered in white spores. Spore print white.

Laccaria is well represented in New Zealand with 12 species, several of these are thought to be exotic.

Laccaria species are ectomycorrhizal and the indigenous species all occur with Nothofagus, Leptospermum or Kunzea, but unlike most of the other fungi that live with specific trees, this family are thought to be able to survive also by living on leaf litter as saprotrophs. The introduced species are found with pines, oaks, birch and a number of other introduced species. Where they occur they are often in big troops of several dozen fruit bodies.

A genus of small mushrooms, common throughout New Zealand. Ectomycorrhizal, the genus includes some 'early succession' species found in nurseries and disturbed sites. The mushrooms are either brownish or purplish in colour, with a waxy feel to the gills. The spores have spine-like ornamentations which are amyloid in Meltzer's reagent.

Fourteen species have been reported from New Zealand, but there is doubt about the true dentity of some of the New Zealand taxa. Only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Lachnella Fr. 1836

Basidiomycetes with small, hairy, cup-shaped fruiting bodies. Saprobic on fallen wood.

Seven species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Lachnum apalum var. beatonii Spooner 1987

Lachnum hyalopus (a Phormium specialist), Lachnum apalum var. beatonii (a Juncus specialist), and unnamed Lachnum species on Carex (PDD 117556), Astelia (PDD 71062) and Cyathea (PDD 112178) are phylogenetically very close. Collectively, their ITS sequences have a 98.7% match and the various species lack unique sets of consistent nucleotide changes. Backing up the host-related species structure are morphological differences, especially in ascospore size and shape of the excipular cells.

L. apalum var. beatonii has longer ascospores than L. hyalopus (40-65 µm versus 30-45 µm); short-cylindric, more or less square, excipular cells versus long-cylindric excipular cells; hairs undifferentiated compared to slightly swollen at the tips. The species on Astelia has ascospores 15-20 x 2.5 µm, short and broad excipular cells and hairs slightly swollen at the tips. The species on Cyathea has ascospores 55-75 x 2 µm and long-cylindric exipular cells.

Another Juncus-inhabiting species (PDD 108737) is phylogenetically distinct within Lachnum, has shorter ascospores that match a New Zealand specimen Spooner (page 661) identified as L. apalum, but compared to the specimen examined by Spooner, PDD 108737 has non-lanceolate paraphyses and coarsely roughened hairs.

Another macromorphologically similar unnamed Juncus-inhabiting species with filiform ascospores is represented by PDD 117687 and PDD 62169, but this species has smooth-walled hairs and is phylogenetically an Albotricha sp. The same species has been found on leaves of Gahnia, Cortaderia and Chionochloa.

Lachnum hyalopus (Cooke & Massee) Spooner 1987

Lachnum hyalopus (a Phormium specialist), Lachnum apalum var. beatonii (a Juncus specialist), and unnamed Lachnum species on Carex (PDD 117556), Astelia (PDD 71062) and Cyathea (PDD 112178) are phylogenetically very close. Collectively, their ITS sequences have a 98.7% match and the various species lack unique sets of consistent nucleotide changes. Backing up the host-related species structure are morphological differences, especially in ascospore size and shape of the excipular cells.

L. apalum var. beatonii has longer ascospores than L. hyalopus (40-65 µm versus 30-45 µm); short-cylindric, more or less square, excipular cells versus long-cylindric excipular cells; hairs undifferentiated compared to slightly swollen at the tips. The species on Astelia has ascospores 15-20 x 2.5 µm, short and broad excipular cells and hairs slightly swollen at the tips. The species on Cyathea has ascospores 55-75 x 2 µm and long-cylindric exipular cells.

Another Juncus-inhabiting species (PDD 108737) is phylogenetically distinct within Lachnum, has shorter ascospores that match a New Zealand specimen Spooner (page 661) identified as L. apalum, but compared to the specimen examined by Spooner, PDD 108737 has non-lanceolate paraphyses and coarsely roughened hairs.

Another macromorphologically similar unnamed Juncus-inhabiting species with filiform ascospores is represented by PDD 117687 and PDD 62169, but this species has smooth-walled hairs and is phylogenetically an Albotricha sp. The same species has been found on leaves of Gahnia, Cortaderia and Chionochloa.

Lactarius Pers. 1797

Spore print white or yellow. Cap about 5-10 cm diam., slightly sunken towards the centre, surface often velvety, most species pale orange (salmon) or dark brown. Flesh brittle, snaps easily, exudates a white or yellowish sticky liquid when broken. Stipe similar in colour to cap, cylindric or tapering slightly towards the base, no ring.

Lactarius species are ectomycorrhizal, always found on the soil close to their host trees. The indigenous species are confined to either Nothofagus forests or to stands of tea-tree, where they are often found in large numbers in the autumn. L. clarkeae and L. umerensis are orange in colour, L. sepaceus is dark brown, L. maruiaensis is yellowish, while L. tawai is variable in colour (orangish, reddish, purplish) but distinctive because of the concentric zoned pattern of the cap.

The exotic species include three species under silver birch (L. pubescens with whitish to pale orange cap, L. glyciosmus and L. turpis with dark caps, L. glyciosmus with a distinctive coconut odour), and L. deliciosus at a few sites in the southern South Island under pines.

Laetiporus Murrill 1904
Highly distinctive genus in New Zealand with single species, forming large annual fruiting bodies, on living beech.
Lamproderma Rostaf. 1873

Fruiting body stalked sporangium, stalk solid, dark, often short. Outer wall layer persistent. Spore mass dark. Six species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Lanzia sp. 'big red' P.R. Johnst.

Lanzia big red

Common on fallen pohukawa leaves. Apothecia cupulate, stipitate, 1-2 mm diam., dark, often reddish receptacle, dark red to black hymenium, glabrous; dry receptacle furfuraceous. Usually associated with darkened patches on fallen leaves with no or poorly developed zone lines, sometimes with no dark patches but with more or less complete narrow, black zone line.

Excipulum of long-cylindric cells, somewhat tangled, the outer layers with thickened walls, outer layer of loose elements, encrusted with dark pigment, end cells of these lements swollen, clavate. Paraphyses dimorphic, most 2 um diam., about same length as asci, others up to 5 um diam., extending 10-20 um beyond asci. Asci about 70-90 x 7-9 um, more or less cylindric, tapering gradually to broad, subtruncate apex, wall thick at apex, amyloid pore entending right through wall, most intense to inside, spreading radially to outside. Ascospores 9-12 x 3-4 um, elliptic, more or less radially symmetrical, ends broadly rounded, 0-septate, hyaline.

The same fungus is isolated as an endophyte from apparently symptomless leaves. Appear also to be associated with small, dark, blister-shaped lesions on living leaves.
Leccinum Gray 1821

A single species in New Zealand, the introduced 'birch bolete'. Found only under silver birch.

Edible and choice.

The very bitter Chalciporus piperatus (smaller, with bright yellow base to the stalk) has also been found under silver birch.

One exotic species in New Zealand, ectomycorrhizal under silver birch.
Lentaria Corner 1950

Branched, upright fruiting bodies on wood. Other branched coral fungi on wood are Multiclavula, Clavicorona (crown-shaped branching pattern at tips of branches) and Pterula. Pterula and Multiclavula are dimitic, with skeletal hyphae in the fruiting body. Multiclavula has ellipsoid rather than broad-cylindric spores.

Two species in New Zealand

Lentinula Earle 1909

Tough-fleshed mushrooms found on fallen wood, characterised by the hairy pale scales on the dark cap, and the ragged edge to the gills. Stalk slightly darkened towards base, tough, no ring. Spore print white. Saprobic.

Could be confused with some species of Gymnopilus, but these have brown spore prints. Armillaria has a similar, tough stalk and white spores, but has a ring on the stalk and grows in large groups, whereas Lentinula is more often solitary or in small groups. Tricholompsis also on wood and with white spores, can be distinguiished by its bright yellow gills.

Medium-sized, fleshy mushroom (dark brown cap with whitish scales near margin) saprobic on fallen wood. Shiitake (Lentinula edodes) occurs in New Zealand under cultivation only. The native species is genetically similar, although distinct.
Leocarpus Link 1809

Fruiting a short-stalked sporangium, usually gregarious, three wall layers, thin outer layer, lime-encrusted middle layer. Spore mass dark. One species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Leotia Pers. 1794

Fruiting bodies up to about 5 cm tall, with a well-differentiated, more or less globose cap on a narrower stalk. The cap is green, the stalk yellowish and often glutinous. Always on soil.

Ecologically poorly understood. There is a single species in New zealand, found throughout the country.

Although regarded as a cosmopolitan species, recent molecular studies have shown the closely related Australian and New Zealand populations are distinct from those in other parts of the world.

Lepidoderma de Bary 1873

Fruiting body sessile sporangium or a tubular network on surface of substrate, wall with platelets of lime. Spore mass dark. Three species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Lepiota (Pers.) Gray 1821

Small, delicate, thin-fleshed mushrooms, always on soil, cap dry, with brown scale-like patches, white flesh becoming exposed as these break apart as the caps expand. Always with a ring on the narrow stalk, the ring sometimes becoming loose and detached. Gills white, free. Spore print white.

Although common in New Zealand forests, the genus is very poorly understood for New Zealand. Saprobes. Many species are poisonous.

Leucocoprinus is similar in structure and also has a detaching ring on the stalk, but this tropical genus is bright yellow and typically found in pot plants on very rich soil.

Saprobes on soil. A common and widespread genus in New Zealand, but poorly known taxonomically. Small, delicate mushrooms, the cap often pointed and with coarse, brown scales, the gills white and free, the stipe with a prominent ring.

Many species poisonous.

About 15 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Leucoagaricus Locq. ex Singer 1948

Saprobes on soil. Large, pale, Agaricus-like fruiting bodies, but with white gills and spores.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Leucocoprinus Pat. 1888

Tiny, delicate, Lepiota-like mushrooms. Saprobes often found on potting mixes, in glasshouses and potplants.

Three species reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Licea Schrad. 1797

Fruiting body usually sessile, usually globose in shape. Rarely collected from the field, species in this genus are more commonly found in damp chamber cultures. Spores variable in colour. Nine species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Lichenomphalia Redhead, Lutzoni, Moncalvo & Vilgalys 2002

Small yellow or orange mushrooms common amongst moss in swampy areas. The smooth cap is characteristically sunken in centre, gills extending down stalk. No ring on stalk. Spore print white.

Lichenised, associated with an alga, although the algal partner is restricted to near the base of the stalk. Common in Sphagnum bogs, especially at high altitudes.

Other small, soil-inhabiting mushrooms with sunken caps and decurrent gills include Omphalina and Clitocybe. The various genera can be distinguished only using microscopic features.

Bright orange to yellow, Omphalina-like mushrooms (cap umbillicate, gills decurrent) common throughout New Zealand in sphagnum swamps. Thought to be lichenised. Two species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.
Limacella Earle 1909
Amanita-like fungi, but with a somewhat viscid cap and with non-amyloid spores. A single species in New Zealand. Although rarely collected in New Zealand, apparently not associated with ectomycorrhizal trees.
Litschauerella Oberw. 1966

Corticioid fungi on dead wood, all with large cystidia visible on the surface with a hand lens.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Lopharia Kalchbr. & MacOwan 1881
Corticioid fungi, the edge often curved back slightly as a narrow shelf. Hymenial surface smooth. A single New Zealand species.
Lophodermium melaleucum (Fr.) De Not. 1847

Lophodermium melaleucum (Fries:Fries) de Notaris, Giornale Botanico Italiano 2(2): 44 (1847).
= Hysterium melaleucum Fries, Observationes mycologicum 1: 192 (1815).
= Hysterium melaleucum Fries:Fries, Systema mycologica 2: 589 (1823).
= Lophodermina melaleuca (Fries:Fries) Höhnel, Annales Mycologici 15: 312 (1917).
= Hysterium pulchellum Fr.
= Hysterium melaleucum var. pulchellum (Fr.) Fr.
= Hysterium melaleucum Fr. var. pulchellum (Fr.) Fr.:Fr.
= Lophodermium maculare de Not. f. vaccinii-vitis-ideae Spegazzini, Decades Mycologicae Italicae no.98 (1879). [? inval. Art. 29] [!]
= Lophodermium melaleucum Fr.:Fr. var. aureo-marginatum Starbäck [fide Tehon 1935:100, Terrier 1942:28, but cf. Eriksson,ibid.:41]
= Lophodermium melaleucum Fr.:Fr. var. epiphyllum Zeller. [fide Tehon 1935:100, Terrier 1942:28]

ANAMORPH Tehon 1935:101 reports some confusion w.r.t. reports of anamorph for this sp.

HOST Vaccinium spp (Ericaceae), on leaves, twigs, berries, fide Eriksson 1970.

DISTRIBUTION temperate Europe and North America

TYPE UPS - lectotype, Fries, Scleromyceti Sueciae exs. No.29, on Vaccinium vitis-ideae.

SPECIMENS EXAMINED Fries, Scleromyceti Sueciae No. 29 (UPS, BPI).
Sweden, Uppland, Vänge s:n, vid Fiby urskog, on Vaccinium vitis idaea, coll. B. Eriksson (441c), 25.ix.1964 (UPS).
Sweden, Uppland, Uppsala, Bondkryrka, Nåsten. NO om Rödmyren, on Vaccinium vitis-idaea, coll. O. Eriksson (1730), 23.ix.1962 (UPS).
Sweden, Uppsala, Parish Bondhyrho, Nosten, on Vaccinium vitis-idaea, coll. H.H.Whetzel, J.A.Nannfeldt, 3.vii.1930 (BPI).
Rehm Ascomyceten No.1065 (UPS).
Germany, Saxony, on Vaccinium vitis-idaea, coll. W.Kreiger, ix.1900 (BPI).
Germany, Saxony, on Vaccinium oxycocci, coll. W.Kreiger, 12.vi.1911, Kreiger, Fungi saxonici 2158, as Lophodermium oxycocci (BPI).
Germany, Saxony, near Schandau, on Vaccinium vitis-idaea, Deutschlands Schwaemme, Holl, Schmidt & Kunze no.81 (BPI).
Germany, Bohemia, Ternberg in Mähren, on Vaccinium vitis-idaea, coll. J.Piskorz, v.1925, F.Petrak Flora Bohemiae et Maoraviae exsiccata no.39 (BPI).
Russia, Prov. Jaroslawl, Berdicino, on Vaccinium vitis-idaea, coll. Serebrianikow, 3.viii.1909, Tranzschel et Serebrianikow,8 Mycotheca Rossica no.32 (BPI).
Italy, Cansiglio, on Vaccinium vitis-idaea, viii.1879, Saccardo, Mycotheca Veneta no.1478 (BPI).
USA, Alaska, Ketchikan, on Vaccinium vitis-idaea, coll. N.E.Stevens, 4.viii.1922 (BPI, as L. oxycocci).
USA, Ohio, on Vaccinium vitis-idaea, coll. F.C.Stewart, 1987 (TNS F-194588 as L. oxycocci)
USA, Washington, East of Northport, on Vaccinium caespitosum, coll. G.G.Hedgcock, 22.v.1935 (BPI).
USA, Me., York, Paines Bog, on Vaccinium macrocarpum, coll. R.Thaxter, 15.viii.1897 (BPI, as L. oxycocci).
Canada, British Colombia, Vancouver Island, Ucluelet, on Vaccinium ovatum, coll. W.G.Ziller, 6.x.1957 (BPI, PDD 18830).
Canada, British Colombia, on Vaccinium ovatum, coll. F.G.Inman, 20.ix.1948 (BPI, as L. oxycocci).

REFERENCES Tehon, Ill. Biol. Monogr. 13:100-101 (1935). Eriksson, Symb. Bot. Ups. 19(4):41-42 (1970), disagrees with some 8of Tehon's findings w.r.t. host range and synonymy. Ell. & Ev., N. Amer. Pyrenomyc.: 715, recorded on spots on living leaves of Rhododendron, though notes that the yellowish lips are not typical. Eriksson 1970 considered that Shear, USDA Tech. Bull. 258: 14-15 (1931), were confused over identity of this sp., discussing L. melaleucum under the name L. oxycocci. Höhnel, Ann. Myc. 15:312 (1917). Nannfeldt, Nov. Acta Reg. Soc. Sci. Ups. 8(2):205 (1932). Rehm, Rabenh. Krypt.-Fl,. ed.2, 1(3): 38-39 (1887). Hilitzer 1929:80-82, records on Rhododendron as well as Vaccinium. Terrier, Beitr. Krypt. Schw. 9(2):27-28 (1942), this sp. is type of Lophodermina Höhnel - :31, the subcuticular position of L. melaleucum is not sufficient criterion for the creation of a separate genus. :28, those spp. separated on the basis of lip colour, i.e. L. melaleucum v. aureomarginatum and var. epiphyllum are both conspecific with L. melaleucum. EXSICCATI Fckl. Fungi Rhen. 736; Sacc. M. V. 1478; Moug. &2 Nestl. Stirp vog. 654; Fries Scl. Suec. 29; Schmidt-Kunze 81; Libert Ard. 187; West Herb. 1045; Roum. Gall. 269; Tranzschel-Sereb. M. R. 32. Rehm ascom. 1065, as L. oxycocci [fide Eriksson ibid.]

DESCRIPTION Ascomata and pycnidia developing in pale lesions on dead fallen or attached leaves and on twigs, sometimes with faint, incomplete black zone lines around margin of lesions [well-developed in Hedgcock 22.v.1935].
Ascomata 0.4-0.7 x 0.3 mm, broad-elliptic to more or less ovate with a single longitudinal opening slit lined with pale yellow lip cells, some ascomata rounded to angular in outline with 3 radiate opening slits. Immature ascomata uniformly black walled or with narrow preformed line just prior to ascomata opening. Pycnidia numerous, round, 0.2 mm diam., pustulate, initially pale, becoming dark brown with age. [ note - Rehm 1065 and Hedgcock 22.v.1935 lack pycnidia].
Subcuticular. In vertical section in unopened ascomata upper wall 40-50 μm thick, mostly comnprising brown to pale brown, somewhat thick-walled, 4-7 μm diam. cells, but across central part of ascomata the inner half of the wall comprises thin-walled, hyaline, globose to irregularly-shaped cells forming a loose tissue. In ascomata starting to open upper wall up to 60 μm thick, tapering gradually to outside edge of ascoma, comprising brown to dark brown, angular cells, 4-8 μm diam, forming a complex pattern within the wall in relation to cell darkness. The outer 1-3 layers of cells and a group of cells immediately to each side of the centre of the ascomatal wall are dark brown with thick walls, the cells in other parts of the wall have only slightly thickened walls and are brown to pale brown. Lower wall 10-12 μm thick, of 2-3 rows of 5-9 μm diam, angular to globose cells, the outermost walls of the outer row of cells thickened and darkened, otherwise of pale thin-walled cells. Subhymenium of loose tissue of irregularly-shaped cells up to 30 μm thick.
Paraphyses 1.5 μm diam., undifferentiated to loosely circinate at apex. Asci 90-110 x 9-12 μm, subclavate, tapering to small rounded to truncate apex, with short basal stalk, wall undifferentiated at apex, 8-spored, development sequential. Released ascospores not seen, appear to be about 40-60 x 2-2.5 μm, and to have well-developed gelatinous sheath.
[from Whetzel & Nannfeldt, 3.vii.1930, BPI] Conidiomata subcuticular, upper wall comprises a thin layer of dark brown material with no obvious cellular structure, lower wall comnprises 2-3 rows of pale brown to hyalinem thin-walled, angular cells, on which the conidiogenous cells are held in a palisade-like layer. Conidiogenous cells 7.5-10 x 2-2.5 μm, cylindric to tapering to apex, solitary, proliferation sympodial, often with 2 conidia held at the apex. Conidia 4-6 x 1 μm, straight to slightly curved, hyaline, nonseptate, ends rounded.

NOTES Macroscopically with numerous, dark, pustulate pycnidia, yellowish, well-developed lips. In vertical section upper wall with complex pattern of dark versus pale cells. Subclavate asci 9-12 μm wide. Paraphyses more or less undifferentiated. In comparison L. oxycocci has no distinct lips, lacks pycnidia, in vertical section has an upper wall very uniform in appearance, asci 4.5-5.5 μm wide, paraphyses slowly increasing to more or less clavate apex, 4-5.5 μm diam.
Some variation in presense of pycnidia, for example absent from collections Rehm 1065 and Hedgcock 22.v.1935. Also variation in development of zones lines, absent in many collections, well-developed and more or less complete in Hedgcock 22.v.1935. Also variation in degree of development of lip cells, for example very prominent and bright in Tranzschel et Serebriankinow, Mycotheca Rossica no.32 (BPI), while in others can be quite dull and/or narrow.
This species is probably confined to Vaccinium. Reports from Rhododendron catawbiense (Farr et al. 1989) are probably incorrect. All collections of Lophodermium from R. catawbiense so far examined have been of an as yet undescribed Lophodermium species.

Notes from P.R. Johnston from the 1980's

Lophodermium nitidum P.R. Johnst. 2001
[Unable to display]
Lophodermium oxycocci (Fr.) Duby 1861

Lophodermium oxycocci (Fries:Fries) Karsten, Mycologia Fennica 2: 244 (1873).
= Hysterium oxycoccos Fries:Fries, Systema mycologicum 2: 588 (1823).
= Hypoderma oxycocci (Fries:Fries) Kunze, Revisio Generum Plantarum 3(3): 487 (1898).
= Lophodermium oxycocci (Fries:Fries) Karsten var. hypophyllum Dearn. & House. [fide Eriksson, Symb. Bot. Ups. 19:42 (1970).]

ANAMORPH Leptostroma oxycocci Hilitzer, Ved. Spisy csl. Akad. zemed. 3: 83 (1929). - but see notes below.

HOST Vaccinium (Ericaceae)

DISTRIBUTION N America, Europe

TYPE UPS, lectotype - Fries, Scler. Suec. 169 [fide Eriksson, Symb. Bot. Ups. 19:42 (1970)]

SPECIMENS EXAMINED USA, Washington, Long Beach, on Vaccinium macrocarpum, coll. C.L.Shear, 17.ix.1913 (BPI, as L. hypophyllum).
USA, Washington, Spring Bog, on Vaccinium macrocarpon, coll. N.E.Stevens, iv.1920 (BPI, as L. hypophyllum).
USA, Oregon, Elatsop, on Vaccinium macrocarpon, coll. H.F.Bain, v.1925 (BPI, as L. hypophyllum).
USA, Minnesota, Meadowlands, on Vaccinium oxycoccus, coll. C.L.Shear, 21.viii.1914 (BPI, as L. hypophyllum).
USA, New York, near Swan Lake, on Vaccinium oxycoccus, coll. C.L.Shear, 6.viii.1927 (BPI, as L. hypophyllum).

REFERENCES Eriksson, Symb. Bot. Ups. 19:42 (1970), on leaves, notes that Shear, U. S. Dept. Agr. Tech. Bull. 258 (1931), was confused, the samples he considered L. oxycocci were in fact L. melaleucum. Eriksson has studies types of both L. oxycocci and L. hypophyllum (NYS) and found them conspecific. Rehm, Rabenh. Krypt.-Fl. ed.2, 1(3): 39-40, 1247 (1887). Hilitzer 1929:82-84. Zeller, Mycologia 26: 293 (1934) considered this sp. characterised by always being on upper leaf surface, and by the long ascospores.

EXSICCATI Fries Scl. Suec. 169; Rehm Ascom. 1065; Jaap F. S. E. 369.

NOTES Hilitzer cites Scl. Suec 169 and Rehm Ascom. 1065 under this name. However, as shown by Eriksson (1970) Rehm 1065 is in fact L. melaleucum. Thus Hilitzer's description of an anamorph for this species MAY be incorrect - certainly one is not evident on the Eriksson collections ex UPS, but not so clearcut for the Fries specimen, in which, on some leaves at least, dark brown to almost black pustulate structures resembling pycnidia of Lophodermium are present.
Appears that 2 fungi may be present on Fries Scl. Suec. 169. One, with mature ascomata has pale brown walls with dark line along outside edge, 0.4-0.6 x 0.3 mm, lips not obvious, most slightly gaping to expose hymenium, no pycnidia. The second, which is the more numerous on the UPS specimen, has only overmature ascomata with only lower wall still remaining. The ascomata are mostly elliptic to broad-elliptic, 0.4-0.6 x 0.3mm, rarely triangular, associasted with numerous, dark brown, pustulate, 0.2 mm diam. pycnidia. This second fungus apopears to match L. melaleucum sensu Eriksson. Eriksson records both L. melaleucum and L. oxyxocci on V. oxycoccos.

DESCRIPTION: [microscopic features from Eriksson collections only]
Ascomata developing in bleached areas of fallen leaves, sometimes with faint black or brown, possibly host-induced zone lines. Ascomata 0.4-0.8 x 0.3-0.4 mm, elliptic in outline with rounded ends, immature with pale to dark grey walls and no preformed line of dehiscence. Mature ascomata often with pale brown walls, with narrow black line marking outside edge of ascomata, or with dark brown to dark grey walls, opening by single longitudinal slit, not lined with obvious lip cells, ascomata often remaining open when dry with the brownish-yellow to dull orange-yellow hymenium remaining widely exposed. Pycnidia lacking.
Subcuticular. In vertical section immature ascomata upper wall up to 25 μm thick, tapering gradually to ouside of ascoma, of angular to irregularly-cylindrical, 2.5-5 μm, slightly thick-walled, brown to pale brown cells, appearance of the cells not varying over whole wall, except for poorly developed layer of short-cylindric, hyaline, thin-walled, periphysis-like cells lining inside of wall. Mature ascomata upper wall up to 30 μm thick, mostly of borown to pale brown, slightly thick-walled, angular, 2.5-5 μm diam. cells, but toward the base of the wall cells up to 10 μm diam., and here only the outermost cells darkened, the inner layers of cells form a broad connecting area between the upper and lower walls, and comprise similar, large, angular, hyaline cells. Exposed face of broken upper wall covered with loose, palisade-like layer about 10-15 μm wide of hyaline, thin-walled, cylindric, sometimes branched cells. Appears to be a poorly developed, about 10 μm wide excipulum-like layer between the hymenium and the upper wall, comprising 3-4 rows of hyaline, thin-walled, paraphysis-like elements, but closely septate, especially near the bases. Lower wall 25-30 μm thick, outermost 1-2 layers of cells 3-5 μm diam., angular, with outermost wall slightly thickened and brown, inside this is 3-4 cell wide layer of angular to globose, hyaline, slightly thick-walled, 5-8 μm diam. cells.
Paraphyses 1.5 μm diam., increasing more or less gradually to 4-5.5 μm diam. at the clavate to fusoid apex, extending up to 10 μm beyond asci. Asci 70-85 x 4.5-5.5 μm, subclavate, tapering to small rounded apex, wall undifferentiated at apex, 8-spored, spores confined to upper 40-45 μm of ascus with empty basal stalk, development sequential. Ascospores 20-26 x 1 μm, more or less straight when released, with small, about 2 μm diam., globose gelatinous cap, but otherwise without gelatinous sheath, 0 septate, more or less not tapering to base.

Notes from P.R. Johnston from the 1980's

Loweporus J.E. Wright 1976
Resupinate polypore, sometimes with effused-reflexed margin. The single New Zealand species, L. roseoalbus has a pinkish or violaceous pore surface, and is found on a wide range of native hosts, rarely on exotics.
Lycogala P. Micheli ex Adans. 1763

Fruiting body hemispherical or globose, up to 5 cm diam. Reticularia is distinguished by the form of the sterile elements between the spores. Three species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Lycoperdon Pers. 1801

Smallish puffballs found on soil, characterised by a cellular sterile base, a broad stalk of tissue which lacks spores and within which are chambers (cells) visible under the hand lens.

There are 4 species reported from New Zealand.

Fruiting bodies with a sterile, broad, stalk-like base, flesh white when young, powdery and brown when mature, opening through a well-defined pore. On soil.

Several species reported for New Zealand, but poorly understood taxonomically. Only those species listed below treated in the Virtual Mycota.

Macbrideola H.C. Gilbert 1934

Fruiting body stalked sporangium, less tham 0.5 mm tall, stalk hollow, translucent. Outer wall layer persistent. Spore mass dark. One species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Macowanites Kalchbr. 1882

Secotioid or truffle-like Russula species. The pinkish-red Macowanites carmineus is quite common, has a well-developed stalk, and gills which remain covered by a thin, membranous veil. The shape, texture, and colours are very reminescent of Russula. M. tapawera and M. rubroluteus differ in lacking a distinct stalk. Microscopically the characteristic spores are like those of Russula.

Mycorrhizal under beech and tea-tree.

There are at least 3 species in New Zealand, all endemic.

Russula species in which the gills remain covered by a thin, membranous veil. At least 3 species in New Zealand.
Macrocystidia Joss. 1934 [1933]

Sub-secotioid mushroom, the somewhat deformed gills never widely exposed; pink spores. Saprobic on soil. A single New Zealand species.

Macrolepiota Singer 1948 [1946]

Macroscopically distinctive mushrooms, usually found on soil in pastures and wasteland. Similar in appearance to the green-spored Chlorophyllum

Five species have been reported from new Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Macrotyphula R.H. Petersen 1972

Clavarioid fungi with simple, very narrow (less than 2 mm broad) clubs. Saprobic on soil.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Malajczukia Trappe & Castellano 1992

Truffle-like fungus, differing from Mesophelia in anatomical features of the fruiting body. The single New Zealand species is presumably mycorrhizal with tea-tree.

Marasmiellus Murrill 1915

Small, tough mushrooms on fallen wood, twigs and leaves. Distinguished from Marasmius by pileipellis structure (cutis or trichoderm rather than a hymeniform palisade). Some species with central stipe, some with lateral stipe or directly laterally attached to substrate.

About four species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Marasmius Fr. 1836

Spore print white. Small brown or whitish mushrooms characterised by having tough, leathery fruiting bodies, some species with long, very narrow, almost hair-like stalks. The stalks are often dark.

There are more than 25 species of Marasmius reported for New Zealand. In addition, there are several more species in Marasmius-like genera such as Micromphale (with a garlic odour), Marasmiellus (lacking a central stalk), and Gloiocephala (poorly defined, fold-like gills).

Most species are found on small twigs and sticks, and fallen, dead leaves. Several of the indigenous, leaf-inhabiting species are specialised to a single kind of plant, for example M. fishii on flax leaves, M. podocarpicola on totara, M. rhombisporus on pseudopanax, and M. rhopalostylidis on nikau. The introduced M. oreades is a soil-inhabiting species found in grassland.

Small, tough mushrooms on fallen wood, twigs and leaves. Distnguished from Marasmiellus by pileipellis structure (hymeniform palisade rather than a cutis or trichoderm). Micromphale has a garlic-like odour.

Thirty or more species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi. Taxonomically still poorly understood.

Medeolaria Thaxt. 1922
Morphologically highly distinctive fungus. rDNA seqeuncing of M. farlowii suggests it is close to Dermateaceae s.s., i.e. Pezicula, etc.
The tree attached is based on ITS sequences from Leotiomycetes cultures from New Zealand, together with GQ406809, the M. farlowii ITS sequence in Genbank from LoBuglio and Pfister (Mycol Progress (2010) 9:361–368; DOI 10.1007/s11557-009-0644-y)
Melanoleuca Pat. 1897

Dull, Collybia-like mushrooms saprobic on soil or wood. Characterised by the finely roughened, amyloid spores.

A single New Zealand species.

Melanophyllum Velen. 1921

Saprobe on soil and litter. The single species reported for New Zealand has a wide distribution internationally. Cap with distinctive powdery surface and veil remnants hanging from the edge.

Meripilus P. Karst. 1882

Forming large fleshy poroid fruiting bodies, mostly developing at ground level at the base of affected trees.

New Zealand has a single, introduced species.

Mesophellia Berk. 1857
Truffle-like fungus, differing from Malajczukia in anatomical features of the fruiting body. The nut-like central part of the fruiting body is sterile, though to be an adaptation to attarct the animal vectors of this funguas, while the spores are confined to a narrow zone near the outside edge. Exotic in NZ, mycorrhizal with Eucalyptus.
Metatrichia Ing 1964

Fruiting body a sessile or stalked sporangium, often in clusters. Opening by a preformed operculum. Sterile filaments amongst the spores highly sculptured. Spore mass red. After the wall of the fruiting body breaks the elastic filaments amongst the spores expand in a tangled mass. Two species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Microglossum Gillet 1879

Green or orange-coloured, narrow, upright fruiting bodies on soil, up to about 5 cm tall. There are two species reported from New Zealand, distinguished by colour.

As with Geoglossum and Trichoglossum, there are very few collections from the South Island.

Thuemenidium has fruiting bodies of a similar shape, but they are smaller, bright yellow, and always on wood.

Micromphale Gray 1821

Small, tough mushrooms on fallen wood, twigs and leaves. Distinguished from Marasmiellus its garlic-like odour. Marasmius has a different pileipellis structure (hymeniform palisade rather than a cutis or trichoderm).

The name has not been used in New Zealand.

Mniopetalum Donk & Singer 1962

Small, thin-fleshed but tough and leathery, saprobic basidiomycetes with shelf-like fruiting bodies on mosses. Globose to subglobose spores. The hymenial surface is folded rather than gill-like. Cheimonophyllum and Anthracophyllum are morphologically similar but grow on dead wood.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Moellerodiscus coprosmae P.R. Johnst. 2002
Note that Johnston 2002 host record of C. foetidissima was based on misidentified specimens
Mollisia (Fr.) P. Karst. 1871

ITS gene tree of the 50 or so New Zealand Mollisia and Mollisia-like species for which there are cultures, comparing them with Joey Tanney (2016) Phialocephala specimens, Brian Douglas (2013, PhD thesis), and Genbank BLAST matches to accessions from type specimens. UNITE Species Hypothesis matches are noted. Morphology has barely been compared, but in the case of NZ Species 31 morphology does not support the ITS-based genetic match. Any matches need confirming with a more discriminatory gene; RPB1 has been used by Tanney and others. Generic limits remain poorly resolved.

Data in Geneious Dan Discos\28 Sept 2017\Mollisia

'Mollisia' in the sense discussed here includes most of the New Zealand specimens having a sexual fruiting body with a Dermateaceae morphology in the sense of Korf (excipulum of more or less globose cells, usually with dark walls) that have an ITS sequence available, in morphologically defined genera such as Mollisia, Pyrenopeziza, Niptera, and Tapesia. Also included are the (as yet unpublished) sequences from the Mollisia PhD thesis of Brian Douglas, the Phialocephala sequences from Joey Tanney (Mycologia, 2016), and sequences that represent type specimens from Genbank BLAST search results based on the New Zealand sequences.

Included in the phylogeny on the basis of genetic similarity are a range of Leotiomycetes with reduced ascomata (e.g. Loramyces), several genera based on asexual morphologies (e.g. Barrenia, Acephala, Fuscosclera and Phialocephala, in addition to the genus Vibrissea. Genetically robust generic limits amongst these fungi remain to be resolved.

Some specimens with a more or less Mollisia-like morphology are genetically distinct. For example, D1091, D818, D770, in UNITE Species Hypothesis SH021623.07FU and genetically close to fungi with an aquatic hyphomycete like morphology such as Helicodendron, Filosporella, Tricladium, etc.

Morchella Dill. ex Pers. 1794

Morels. In New Zealand these fungi have been found only in human habitats and are assumed to all be introduced. Saprobic (or possibly mycorrhizal) on soil. Spring fruiting, these fungi often appear at the same site year after year.

Four species have been reported from New Zealand; however they have not been investigated for the region taxonomically.

Edible and choice, but can be confused with the macroscopically similar Gyromitra, which is highly poisonous. Gyromtira occurs in New Zealand in native forests and in pine plantations, whereas Morchella has been found only in urban areas.

Morels. In New Zealand these fungi have been found only in human habitats and are assumed to all be introduced. Taxonomically they have not been investigated for New Zealand.

Four species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Morganella Zeller 1948

Small puffballs found on decaying wood, the sterile base is absent or if present, it is marshmallow-like in consistency rather than cellular.

There are 2 species reported from New Zealand.

Fruiting bodies with a sterile, broad, stalk-like base, flesh white when young, powdery and brown when mature, opening through a well-defined pore. On wood.

Two species reported for New Zealand.

Mucilago Battarra 1755

Fruiting body irregular in shape, comprising numerous, irregular, anastomosing tubes encrusted with lime. Spore mass dark. One species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Mucilopilus Wolfe 1979
A single species in New Zealand. Distinguished from other boletes by the gelatinous cap and sets of microscopic characters distinct from Suillus.
Multiclavula R.H. Petersen 1967

Branched, upright fruiting bodies on wood. Other branched coral fungi on wood are Lentaria, Clavicorona (crown-shaped branching pattern at tips of branches) and Pterula. Pterula and Multiclavula are dimitic, with skeletal hyphae in the fruiting body. Lentaria has broad-cylindric rather than ellipsoid spores.

Three species in New Zealand

Mutinus Fr. 1849

Simple, erect clubs, the fertile layer usually near the apex.Very fragile.

Poorly understood taxonomically, there may be several exotic species in New Zealand.

Simple, erect clubs, the fertile layer usually near the apex. Poorly understood taxonomically, there may be several exotic species in New Zealand.
Mycena (Pers.) Roussel 1806

Small, delicate fungi with bonnet caps, the shape of a bell or an upturned bucket. Mycenas come in a wide variety of colours, most are white, brown, cream or yellow, but they also come in bright red, olive, bright blue and sea green. The caps are generally quite small, from as little as 2 mms wide to a big as a two dollar coin. The stems are usually quite long, very fine, central and can grow directly out of wood or be attached to wood, leaves and twigs by hairs at the base of the stem. Some yield a watery, white or red liquid when the stem is broken. The gills are generally quite deep and often arched. Spore print white.

At least 30 species of Mycena have been recognized in New Zealand. Two of these may be exotic, and of the 28 native species described so far, 19 are endemic. There are probably another 25-50 species which have yet to be described.

Mycena species are all saprobes, breaking down wood, twigs, leaves and other vegetation, key players in the process of returning nutrients to the soil.

Mycena species are amongst the most common of the small mushrooms throughout the country. The native species occur in all kinds of habitats, growing on the massive trunks of fallen kauri and other podocarps, to the tiny dead leaves of manuka and kanuka. There are occasional reports of a bioluminescent species, the tiny mushrooms emitting a greenish glow at night.

Another group of small mushrooms common on fallen wood, leaves and twigs in New Zealand are the Marasmius species. Their fruiting bodies are about the same size as Mycena, but their flesh is tough (stems are pliable, compared to Mycena where they snap easily) and the cap is usually flatter in shape.

Small delicate mushrooms, saprobic on wood. Cap conical (at least when young), spores white, gills not waxy (like the Hygrophorus-like mushrooms), fruiting bodies not reviving after drying (like the Marasmius-like mushrooms).

Some authors segregate Mycena into a number of genera, some of which have been used in the New Zealand literature. These genera are based on characters such as the presence and absence of cheilocystidia, of latex in the tissue, of gelatinous caps and/or stipes, spore shape, etc. The genera include Basisopus, Collopus, Galactopus, Insiticia, Prunulus, and Mycenula.

Thirty or more species of Mycena sensu stricto have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Mycenula P. Karst. 1890 [1889]
Small delicate mushrooms, saprobic on wood. A segregate genus from Mycena with undifferentiated cheilocystidia. The one New Zealand species has a radish-like odour.
Mycoacia Donk 1931

Corticioid fungi, characterised be the hymenial surface being coarsely toothed. Causing a white rot.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Naucoria (Fr.) P. Kumm. 1871
A poorly understood group of small brown mushrooms. Most New Zealand records probably belong in other genera.
Nemania Gray 1821

Small fruiting bodies containing several individual perithecia, flattened across and partly immersed in the host surface. Saprobic on wood that is usually decorticated and partly decomposed. Spores are often small for Xylariaceae, and often with pale brown walls and barely visible germ slits.

Several species have been reported from New Zealand, but is taxonomically poorly understood. Only those listed below have been treated in the Virtual Mycota

Neobulgaria Petr. 1921
Neobulgaria in NZ ITS gene tree suggests there are at least 3 undescribed species of Neobulgaria in New Zealand native forests, in addition to N. alba. From the sequenced specimens, one is on wood, two are on dead tree fern fronds. The tree fern associated species are both large, and genetically have a sister relationship.
Neohygrocybe Herink 1959 [1958]

Wax-gills, saprobic on soil or litter. Distinguished from other wax gills by the somewhat squamulose cap. Some authors include this genus in Hygrocybe.

Two species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Nidula V.S. White 1902
Bird’s nest fungi in which the eggs (peridioles) are loose in the nest, rather than being attached to the nest base as in Crucibulum and Cyathus. Three species are reported from New Zealand.

The birds nest fungi (Crucibulum, Cyathus and Nidula) are saprobes on fallen wood and litter.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Nivatogastrium Singer & A.H. Sm. 1959

Saprobe on wood and soil. Secotioid basidiomycetes, distinguished from Weraroa by having chrysocystidia.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Notholepiota E. Horak 1971

Secotioid genus related to the boletes, with a single species, endemic to New Zealand.

The white fruiting bodies with a short stalk are always found under tea-tree, and it is quite common in northern New Zealand. Mycorrhizal.

A single species in an endemic genus.

Common in the north of New Zealand on soil under manuka and kanuka.

Octaviania Vittad. 1831

Truffle-like, ectomycorrhizal fungi. Lacking a columella, attached to substrate by basal rhizomorphs, spores globose with robust, isolated spore ornamentation, which does not show an iodine reaction. O. tasmanica turns red when bruised.

Two New Zealand species.

Odontia Pers. 1794

Corticioid fungi on wood, the fertile surface with teeth or spines.

Taxonomically poorly understood, about 8 species in New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Omphalina Quél. 1886

Small, brightly coloured mushrooms with umbillicate cap and decurrent gills. Saprobic on soil. Spores white, smooth, nonamyloid. The Omphalina-like mushrooms found in sphagnum bogs are thought to be lichenised and are referred to Lichenomphalina.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Oudemansiella Speg. 1881

Medium-sized, saprobic mushrooms on dead wood. Stipe eccentric or lateral; spores large and globose.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Panaeolina Maire 1933
Small brown mushrooms on soil, often in lawns. A single, introduced, species in New Zealand. Distinguished from Panaeolus by its brown (rather than black), and rough-walled spores.
Panellus P. Karst. 1879

Small to medium sized, fleshy mushrooms with short lateral stipe. Pleurotus-like but with tougher, often hairy cap and amyloid spores.

Five or six species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Paradiacheopsis Hertel 1954

Fruiting body stalked sporangium, stalk solid. Outer wall layer lost with maturity. Spore mass dark. Four species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Paurocotylis Berk. 1855

The fruiting bodies are bright orange-red, almost hollow or with chambers filled with loose, cotony tissue, irregularly-shaped, about 2-4 cm.

A truffle-like ascomycete genus with a single New Zealand species.

Paurocotylis pila is saprobic, common on soil throughout the country, often in disturbed forest sites, along the sides of tracks.

A bright orange-red, almost hollow, irregularly-shaped ball on the soil. A saprobic ascomycete. Common in disturbed areas, along sides of tracks, etc.

A single New Zealand species.

Paxillus Fr. 1836
Large, umbilicate mushrooms with deeply decurrent gills. Accepted for two exotic species, one ectomycorrhizal under pines, the other under introduced broad-leafed trees. Distinguished genetically from the morphologically similar Southern Hemisphere Austropaxillus.
Pellicularia Cooke 1876
Corticioid fungi forming effused, scanty, mould-like fruiting bodies on dead wood. The genus is poorly known for New Zealand and requires reevaluation.
Peniophora Cooke 1879

Corticioid fungi on wood, forming effused, waxy to leathery, brightly coloured fruiting bodies.

Eight species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Penzigia Sacc. 1888

Globose fruiting bodies, either sessile on the host substrate or on a short, narrow stalk. Tissue white inside, with the small, globose perithecia in a narrow layer just beneath the surface. Probably should be considered congeneric with Xylaria.

A few species have been reported for New Zealand, but the genus is poorly understood taxonomically and has not been treated in detail. Only those species listed below have been treated in the Virtual Mycota

Perenniporia Murrill 1942

Polypore fungi on wood, forming resupinate to pileate fruiting bodies, associated with white rot.

Five species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Perichaena Fr. 1817

Fruiting body a sessile or stalked sporangium, or tubular network across surface of substrate. Stalk dark when present. Opening by a preformed operculum. Sterile filaments amongst the spores almost smooth. Spore mass yellow. Two species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Phaeoacremonium W. Gams, Crous & M.J. Wingf. 1996
Beta-tubulin gene tree. NZ isolates for which DNA sequences are available, along with Genbank accessions representing well characterised species globally. NZ isolates are mostly from stained vascular tissue from grape or kiwifruit. Native plants or ecosystems have barely been sampled. ITS sequences are not available, so unable compare with eDNA amplicon data that is available from Nothofagus, kauri and pohutukawa forests.
Phaeocollybia R. Heim 1931

Medium-sized to large mushrooms on soil. Characterised by the stalk lacking a ring, and having a long, tapering base, extending deep into the soil.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Phaeogyroporus Singer 1944

Very large, up to 60cm diam. A single species in New Zealand. Found under a wide range of plants, in both indigenous forests, as well as parks and gardens. Not particularly associated with mycorrhizal trees, so appears to have a saprobic lifestyle, unusual for the boletes. Distinguished microscopically because it has clamp connections (lacking in all other New Zealand boletes).

Widely distributed in tropical Asia and Australia, its presence in northern New Zealand is not unexpected. McNabb noted in his report on this species "The genus Phaeogyroporus contains some of the largest Agaricales known: Cleland (1935) reported that specimens of P. portentosus reached 60 cm in diameter and weighed up to 7 lb 2 oz. P. portentosus is regarded as an edible species in Australia."

A single species in New Zealand, found commonly in city parks, rarely in the forest. Distributed widely in tropical Asia, whether or not this genus is native to New Zealand must be doubtful. The species may be distinguished by the large, olive brown fruitbodies, short-elliptical spores, and the presence of clamp connections.
Phaeomarasmius Scherff. 1897

Phaeomarasmius and Flammulaster are morphologically and biologically similar, both small, brown-spored mushrooms saprobic on dead wood and rotting leaves. The genera are distinguished by subtle differences in pileipellis structure.

Several of the New Zealand species are found also in South America. Five species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Phaeosolenia Speg. 1902
Small, brown, cup-shaped 'corticioid' fungus, common as a saprobe on fallen wood.
Phallobata G. Cunn. 1926

Fruiting body with prominent, cylindrical sterile lobes, the fertile portion confined to the base.

Not common. Saprobic on soil and litter.

Fruiting body with prominent, cylindrical sterile lobes, the fertile portion confined to the base. Probably related to the Phallales.

Saprobic on soil and litter.

Phanerochaete P. Karst. 1889

Corticioid fungi on wood. Fruit bodies usually large and conspicuous, smooth or tuberculate. Never with clamps.

Poorly understood taxonomically there are at least 10 species in New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Phellinus Quél. 1886
Wood decay fungi with at least 16 species in NZ, often difficult to distinguish in field with microscopic features most important for diagnosis. Fruiting body varies in different species from wood-hard brackets to thin, hard crusts, always brown, and with lower surface of pores. Some species are annual, others perennial. Common on wood of many different kinds of tree. Some bracket-shaped species are easily confused at a distance with Ganoderma species, although lower surface of Phellinus species is never white and never with brown spore deposit beneath or on top of fruiting body. The hoof-shaped fruiting bodies of P. robustus make this the most distinctive species of Phellinus.

Polypore fungi with crust-like or bracket-shaped basidiocarps, causing a white rot on fallen wood.

About 15 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Phialocephala W.B. Kendr. 1961

ITS gene tree of the 50 or so New Zealand Mollisia and Mollisia-like species for which there are cultures, comparing them with Joey Tanney (2016) Phialocephala specimens, Brian Douglas (2013, PhD thesis), and Genbank BLAST matches to accessions from type specimens. UNITE Species Hypothesis matches are noted. Morphology has barely been compared, but in the case of NZ Species 31 morphology does not support the ITS-based genetic match. Any matches need confirming with a more discriminatory gene; RPB1 has been used by Tanney and others. Generic limits remain poorly resolved.

Data in Geneious Dan Discos\28 Sept 2017\Mollisia

'Mollisia' in the sense discussed here includes most of the New Zealand specimens having a sexual fruiting body with a Dermateaceae morphology in the sense of Korf (excipulum of more or less globose cells, usually with dark walls) that have an ITS sequence available, in morphologically defined genera such as Mollisia, Pyrenopeziza, Niptera, and Tapesia. Also included are the (as yet unpublished) sequences from the Mollisia PhD thesis of Brian Douglas, the Phialocephala sequences from Joey Tanney (Mycologia, 2016), and sequences that represent type specimens from Genbank BLAST search results based on the New Zealand sequences.

New Zealand specimens match Phialocephala banmuru, P. nodosa, P. oblonga and C. dextrinospora. The other approximately 33 species appear to be distinct from all Genbank data.

Included in the phylogeny on the basis of genetic similarity are a range of Leotiomycetes with reduced ascomata (e.g. Loramyces), several genera based on asexual morphologies (e.g. Barrenia, Acephala, Fuscosclera and Phialocephala, in addition to the genus Vibrissea. Genetically robust generic limits amongst these fungi remain to be resolved.

Some specimens with a more or less Mollisia-like morphology are genetically distinct. For example, D1091, D818, D770, in UNITE Species Hypothesis SH021623.07FU and genetically close to fungi with an aquatic hyphomycete like morphology such as Helicodendron, Filosporella, Tricladium, etc.

Phlebia Fr. 1821

Corticioid fungi on fallen wood, fertile surface varies from smooth to folded to toothed.

Taxonomically poorly understood, about 10 species in New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Phlebiella P. Karst. 1890
Corticioid fungi on wood. Two species have been reported from New Zealand.
Pholiota (Fr.) P. Kumm. 1871

Fleshy mushrooms on wood; cap glutinous or sticky, typically with dark scales emebbed in slime; gills covered with a veil when young, often the remains of the veil form a ring on the central stalk, often scaly below the ring. Spore print cinnamon brown. Often growing in clumps, usually on standing dead wood. The species are variable in size, the large P. aurivella up to 10 cm across, while some of the other NZ endemic species are only 1-2 cm.

This genus of saprobic mushrooms is poorly understood for New Zealand, with perhaps 10 or more species.

Pholiota could be confused with Gymnopilus, but this has a dry cap and brighter (rusty to orange) spores. Naematoloma and Stropharia have dark purplish spore prints. Lentinula has a white spore print and tougher flesh.

Saprobe on wood. Quite large mushrooms, with a central stipe and spores brown, smooth, with a germ pore. Cap usually slimy and scaly.

Ten or more species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi. Poorly understood taxonomically.

Phragmidium Link 1816 [1813]

The sexual teleutospores formed in in pulverent or pulvinate sori. Spores stalked, becoming detached at maturity, transversely septate, more than 2-celled, all cells with 2 pores.

There are 8 Phragmidium species in New Zealand, 4 endemic and 4 exotic. Only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Phylloporia Murrill 1904
Polypore with coriaceous, perennial brackets, often parasitic on living trees. The cosmopolitan P. pectinata is the only species in New Zealand, mostly found on tea tree, often from roots.
Phylloporus Quél. 1888
A single species in New Zealand. Although this fungus is related to the boletes, it has gills rather than pores. The blueing reaction of the tissue with damage is a feature characteristic of the boletes.
Physalacria Peck 1882

Tiny, white basidiomycetes, fruit body comprising a enclosed ball on a narrow stipe. Saprobic on dead wood and leaves.

Probabaly only two species in New Zealand.

Physarum Pers. 1794

Fruiting a stalked or sessile sporangium or forming a tubular network on surface of substrate, lime-encrusted outer wall layer. Spore mass dark. Thirty-four species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Pisolithus Alb. & Schwein. 1805

The dyeballs. Fruiting bodies are medium-sized, yellow to brown to black, with a thick leathery wall. The spores develop in numerous discrete clumps (peridioles) and are released as the upper surface of the spore case breaks down.

The name dyeball arises from their use for dyeing wool in Europe.

In New Zealand there are 3 species, all confined to the thermal areas of the central North Island where they are mycorrhizal with tea-tree species, especially the prostrate kanuka common at these sites.

Fruiting bodies irregularly globose in shape, yellow-brown. Powdery, brownish spore mass revealed when wall breaks down irregularly. In New Zealand found only on soil in thermal areas of the crentral North Island, mycorrhizal on roots of the local prostrate Kunzea.

Four species in New Zealand, all found also in Australia. Only those species listed below treated in the Virtual Mycota.

Plectania Fuckel 1870 [1869-70]

Large, black operculate discomyctes, with broad cups up to 10 cm diam. and short stalks.

Four species have been recorded for New Zealand, all indigenous.

The less common Pseudoplectania nigrella is macroscopically similar, distinguished by its globose ascospores.

Pleurocollybia Singer 1947
Medium sized, fleshy mushrooms saprobic on wood, with stipe often eccentric. Cap smooth, no veil remnants, lamellae adnate to adnexed. Spores white, smooth, inamyloid; pileipellis with end cells diverticulate. A single New Zealand species.
Pleuroflammula Singer 1946
Small agarics, attached laterally to their wood substrate. Distinguished from Crepidotus (macroscopically very similar genus, also with brown spores) by the presense of a veil (persistent remants retained along margin of cap), deep yellow-brown to golden caps, bitter flesh, and rust brown coloured spore print.
Pleurotopsis (Henn.) Earle 1909

Fleshy fungi attached to the substrate directly from the side of the cap, or through a short stalk at one side of the cap, cap smooth, spore print white.

All saprobic.

Three species have been reported for New Zealand, P.longinqua and P. roseola are pinkish and P. subgrisea is dull greyish. P. longinqua characteristically has a somewhat scalloped margin to the cap. P. roseola is known from a single collection.

Medium to small sized, fleshy mushrooms saprobic on wood, with short, lateral stipe. Pleurotus-like but with gelatinised tissue in pileipellis. Differs from Hohenbuehelia in lacking cheilocystidia.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Pleurotus (Fr.) P. Kumm. 1871

Fleshy fungi attached to the substrate directly from the side of the cap, or through a short stalk at one side of the cap, cap smooth, spore print white. Saprobic

There are at least 6 species of Pleurotus in New Zealand, P. purpureoolivaceus being particularly common in Nothofagus forests.

Three common superficially similar New Zealand genera share these features. Pleurotus has a soft cap with easily broken flesh. Pleurotopsis and Hohenbuehelia have a gelatinous layer beneath the surface of the cap, making the flesh difficult to break. All are saprobic. Conchomyces has a similar habit, but no images are available for this genus. It is distinguished by the spores having rough walls.

Sparobes on dead wood. Medium to large, fleshy mushrooms with a short lateral stipe or no stipe.

About 6 species occur in New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi. Several early records of this genus were based on misidentifications.

Plicaturopsis D.A. Reid 1964
Small hoof-shaped or bracket-like fruiting bodies, gill-like folds and ridges below, upper surface smooth. A single New Zealand species.
Pluteus Fr. 1836

Spore print pink. Almost always on wood (the endemic P. terricola is found on soil), usually on large pieces of wood and almost always seen as a single fruiting body. Cap velvety, dark brown or with dark brown patches. Gills pinkish, very fine, free. Stalk without a ring.

There are about 15 species in New Zealand, most confined to native forestsd, but one or two possibly introduced.

The beautiful, darkly felted caps and pink spores make these mushrooms are difficult to confuse with any other genus. A few species, such as P. inconspicuus, are small but these are rarely likely to be encountered.

Saprobic on wood, typically large pieces of wood. The medium-sized fruiting bodies often found as solitary specimens. Spores pink, the cap often dark and velvety, or wth velvety patches.

More than 10 species have been reported from New Zealand, although taxonomically poorly understood. Only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Poculum subcinnabarinum (Dennis) Dumont 1975
Based on DNA sequences from PDD 56790 and PDD 56798 (both from Weinamannia litter from Mt Taranaki and matching morphologically specimens from same host and locality identified by Dumont as P. subcinnabarinum), "Poculum" subcinnabarinum has a phylogenetically isolated position within Helotiaceae.
Podoscypha Pat. 1900

Fruting bodies coriaceous, flask-shaped, often split down one side, gregarious on fallen or buried wood. Confined to the north of the country. The common Stereum ostrea looks similar, but lacks a stalk.

Five species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Podoserpula D.A. Reid 1963
Pagoda-like fruiting bodies with a more or less central stipe with series of horizontal shelves or caps, pinkish or yellowish in colour. Saprobic on rotten wood and plant debris.
Polyporus Fr. 1815
Fruiting body appearance superficially resembles a stalked gilled mushroom or a small bolete, but the texture is much firmer; the lower surface of the cap has pores. There are at least 10 species in NZ, but the most common is P. arcularius.

Polypore fungi forming centrally or laterally stalked fruiting bodies on dead wood, causing a white rot.

Taxonomically poorly understood, about 10 species in New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Poria Pers. 1794
The genus Poria is a nomen dubium, previously used for a genetically divergent set of corticioid fungi. Most New Zealand species have been referred to other genera, but the identity of collections referred to a few species remains unresolved.
Poronia Willd. 1787

Small, column-shaped bodies on dung, with a layer of perithecia across the top surface.

One species has been reported for New Zealand.

Porpoloma Singer 1952

Robust, medium sized mushrooms saprobic on soil. One species in New Zealand, with reddish fibrils on yellow cap, ring on stipe, emarginate gills. Spores are white, smooth, amyloid.

Most species in this genus are South American.

Postia Fr. 1874

Polypore fungi typically with small brackets, causing a brown rot.

Ten species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Pouzaromyces Pilát 1953

A genus with a single species known from New Zealand, Entoloma-like, but with rugulose rather than angular spores. Differs from Rhodocybe by having a hairy rather than smooth cap.

Proliferodiscus J.H. Haines & Dumont 1983

Proliferodiscus

Spooner (1987) reported one species from New Zealand, Proliferodiscus dingleyae. ITS sequences from cultures from putative P. dingleyae specimens appear to represent four distinct species, forming a monophyletic clade sister to P. alboviridis (GenBank accession U57990) and other unpublished sequences putatively representing P. pulverulaceus and P. earoleucus (Luis Quijada, pers.comm., email 17 May 2017).

Note that the at least two species of tiny hyaloscyphaceous species on Dicksonia fronds in New Zealand and Australia that have branched stipes typical of Proliferodiscus, are genetically distinct. Although closeest to some Hyaloscyphaceae, they cluster with no genera with ITS sequences in GenBank.

Protoglossum Massee 1891

Truffle-like, ectomycorrhizal fungi. Hymenogaster-like fungi (lacking a columella, with basal rhizomorphs) characterised as a genus by the cortinarioid spores.

Bougher & Castellano erected a genus Cortinomyces for these fungi, but as it was based on the type of Protoglossum, is a superfluous genus. These authors cited Cunningham (1934) as reporting the species P. luteus from New Zealand, but Cunningham (1944) later treats P. luteus as a synonym of Hymenogaster viscidus, so his concept of this fungus for New Zealand must be doubtful. At least one undescribed species in the genus occurs under Nothofagus in New Zealand.

Prototrichia Rostaf. 1876

Fruiting body a sessile sporangium, wall thin, transparent. Spore mass initially pink, then brown. One species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Protubera Möller 1895

A stinkhorn in which the outer ‘egg’ layer remains more or less intact. With very robust rhizomorphs extending from the base, and with a layer of elongate, gelatinous locules surrounding the internal mass of spores. Resembles the unopened ‘eggs’ of Ileodictyon.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand. P. nothofagi differs from the species illustrated below in having a wall about 1 mm thick and an outer layer which easily peels away.

A stinkhorn in which the outer 'egg' layer remains more or less intact. With very robust rhizimorphs extending from the base, and with layer of elongate, gelatinous locules surrounding the internal mass of spores.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Psathyrella (Fr.) Quél. 1872

Small brown mushrooms with a conical cap. Found mostly on wood and humus and in lawns. Cap structure cellular and spores smooth. Taxonomically poorly understood for New Zealand.

Several of the species reported from New Zealand may have been incorrectly identified, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Pseudoarmillariella (Singer) Singer 1956
A single species has been referred to this genus in New Zealand. P. fistulosa is a small, dull coloured, umbilicate mushroom with decurrent gills, saprobic on wood. The genus was not treated in the Horak (2004) key to New Zealand agarics.
Pseudocolus Lloyd 1907

A stinkhorn in which the 'egg' opens to release three whitish arms which often remain somewhat joined near the top.

A single New Zealand species.

A stinkhorn in which the 'egg' opens to release three, whitish arms which often remain somewhat joined near the top. A single New Zealand species.
Pseudohydnum P. Karst. 1868

Pseudohydnum has a single species in New Zealand. The robust but almost translucent fruiting bodies are characterised by being covered by small teeth on the underside of the 'cap'.

Saprobic on fallen wood.

A member of the Tremellales (the Order characterised by cruciately septate basidia, each sterigma having its own cell). The translucent pale-grey fruiting bodies have a sterile stipe and flattened fertile area at the apex, the fertile surface facing downwards and covered by spines. Gelatinous in texture. Saprobic on wood.

One species in New Zealand.

Pseudolagarobasidium J.C. Jang & T. Chen 1985

Corticioid fungi on wood. Hymenial surface finely roughened, cracking.

One species in New Zealand, also found in Australia and tropical Asia.

Pseudomitrula Gamundí 1980 [1979]
ITS sequences from PDD 121211 and PDD 121212 identify these specimens as Pseudomitrula sp. An unnamed species, phylogenetically distinct from three South American species with sequences in GenBank, and morphologically distinct from the species described by Irma Gamundi in 1980. See images and notes under PDD 121211. Several other PDD specimens originally identified as Microglossum sp. match PDD 121211 morphologically. Perhaps characteristically, dried specimens show fine cracks across the hymenial surface.
Psilocybe (Fr.) P. Kumm. 1871

Spore print purple-brown to black. Small to medium-sized mushrooms, the cap dull brownish or yellowish typically slightly tacky when fresh. Gills attached, stalk central, no ring (at least in the New Zealand species). Saprobic, on soil, on dung, on wood in native forests, in urban areas on wood chip mulches.

There are at least 8 species in New Zealand, at least 2 of which are indigenous.

Some species of Psilocybe turn blue with damage, and these contain the hallucinogenic compound psilocybin. Psilocybe can be difficult to distinguish from other small, brown mushrooms in genera such as Galerina and Inocybe, both of which include poisonous species. Stropharia, often found in similar situations, is more brightly coloured.

Most Psilocybe and all Stropharia species are introduced to New Zealand, and are common and widespread in human habitats such as rough pastures and wood chip mulches. Some Psilocybe species are found on dung.

Spore prints of both species often have a lilac tinge; they are distinguished by the occurence of chrysocystidia in Stropharia.

About 10 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Pterula Fr. 1830

Branched, upright fruiting bodies on wood. Other branched coral fungi on wood are Multiclavula, Clavicorona (crown-shaped branching pattern at tips of branches) and Lentaria. Lentaria and Multiclavula lack the skeletal hyphae characteristic of Pterula.

Several species in New Zealand, taxonomically poorly understood. Only those species listed below have been treated in the Virtual Mycota.

Puccinia Pers. 1800 [1799]

Sori pulvinate, lacking marginal paraphyses, teleutospores stalked, detached at maturity, mostly 2-celled, with a single pore in each cell.

There are 131 species in New Zealand, 62 of these exotic, found only on introduced plants. Only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Pycnoporus P. Karst. 1881

Readily distinguished from the related genus Trametes by its bright orange bracket-shaped fruiting bodies, the colour similar on both upper and on lower poroid surface

One species present in New Zealand.

Polypore fungi forming bright orange, bracket shaped fungi on dead wood, associated with a white rot. The single New Zealand species, P. coccineus, is common on a wide range of hosts, both native and exotic. Often found in exposed situations.
Pyrrhoglossum Singer 1944

Mushrooms with small, shelf-like purplish or greenish fruiting bodies with brown spores. Crepidotus differs in having smooth-walled rather than rough spores

Two species have been reported from New Zealand.

Radulomyces M.P. Christ. 1960

Corticioid fungi on fallen wood. Surface of fruiting body smooth, closely pressed against substrate, watery ceraceous, hygrophanous.

Two species in New Zealand.

Ramaria Fr. ex Bonord. 1851

Large, robust, multi-branched fruiting bodies, variable in colour, and colours often differing between the base and the tips. Ectomycorrhizal under tea-tree and Nothofagus. Unusual amongst the coral fungi in having brown spores.

More than 20 species have been reported from New Zealand, all indigenous and several endemic.

Robust, highly-branched clavarioid fungi, spores brown to very pale brown, ornamented with striae, low ridges, spines, cogs or rings.

Ectomycorrhizal.

More than 20 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Ramaricium J. Erikss. 1954
Corticioid fungi on wood and tree fern fronds. The single New Zealand species, R. polyporoideum, found on several native hosts, forms white to tan basidiocarps, loosely attached to the host substrate, often with groups several small colonies 1–6 cm across.
Ramariopsis (Donk) Corner 1950

Clavarioid fungi with simple, club-shaped fruiting bodies. Distinguished from those Clavaria species with clamp connections by a green to black reaction to 10% Ferric Chloride, and with a very prominant, conical hilar appendix (cf. not prominent, pappilate in Clavaria).

Saprobic on soil.

More than 20 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Rectipilus Agerer 1973

Saprobes on wood. Cyphelloid basidiomycetes, the fruiting body comprising large numbers of tiny white tubes, seperate but gregarious. Henningsomyces has at least some of the hairs on the outside of the fruiting bodies branched; Rectipilus has hairs not branched.

Two species reported from New Zealand.

Repetobasidium J. Erikss. 1958

Corticioid fungi with very thin fruiting bodies, consisting of a network of hyphae across the surface of the substrate. Saprobes on dead wood.

One species reported from New Zealand.

Resinicium Parmasto 1968
Corticioid fungi on dead wood, with the fruiting body varying from smooth to hydnoid. The single New Zealand species, R. bicolor, is a cosmopolitan species, characterised by prominent spines, and known in New Zealand from Nelson northwards, on a broad range of native and exotic hosts.
Restiosporium Vánky 2000

On seeds of Restionaceae. Spores black, in balls, not intermixed with sterile elements.

There is one species in New Zealand, endemic.

Reticularia Bull. 1787-88

Fruiting body globose or mound-shaped with a thick wall that breaks irregularly. The macroscopically similar Lycogala is distinguished by the form of the sterile elements surrounding the spores. Two species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Rhizopogon Fr. 1817

Truffle-like fungi, in the traditional sense of Cunningham. Distinguished by having lateral rhizomorphs, no columella, with spores smooth-walled, hyaline or barely coloured, elliptical. Flesh tough and rubbery.

All species reported for New Zealand are under exotic plants.

Poorly understood taxonomically, eight species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Rhodocybe Maire 1925 [1924]

A genus of pink-spored mushrooms difficult to distinguish macroscopically from Entoloma. Distinguished from Entoloma by the rugulose rather than angular spores. The species vary in stipe attachment, from central, eccentric, to lateral.

Nine species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Rhytidhysteron Speg. 1881
Rhytidhysteron fruiting bodies are common on recently fallen twigs and branches of Beilschmiedia tawa and Sophora spp. (kowhai), and has also been found on cultivated Citrus. A record in PDD from Nothofagus was based on a misidentified host. Based on an ITS phylogeny there are three species known from New Zealand, the Beilschmiedia-associated and the Sophora-associted species may be undescribed and endemic. The species on Citrus has been reported from several other hosts from other parts of the world, and may be exotic. Morphologically the Sophora-associated species differs from the specimens on other hosts in having 1-septate rather than 3-septate ascospores. It is distinguished from the morphologically similar R. hysterinum by LSU sequences (isolate EB 0351, Genbank accession GU397350).

update, August 2022

NZ specimen ex Citrus
ITS a 100% match to the recently named Chinese species Rhytidhysteron ligustrum (Xu et al. 2022). Morphologically the hymenial surface of the Citrus associated specimen is deep red, perhaps matching the reddish brown discs described for R. ligustrum; ascospore sizes match. R. ligustrum is phylogenetically very close to R. camporesii, R. chromolaenae and R. hongheense.

NZ specimens ex Beilschmiedia tawa
>99% match (2 bp across ITS) to R. xiaokongense, a Chinese species known only from an asexual state. Note that a conidial state has not been noted for the species on B. tawa.

NZ specimen ex Sophora ITS is unique within Rhytidhysteron, matching no other sequence in GenBank.

Xu et al., Cryptogamie, Mycologie, 43(3):63-79 (2022) https://doi.org/10.5252/cryptogamie-mycologie2022v43a3

PRJ, July 2016
Richoniella Costantin & L.M. Dufour 1916

A truffle-like fungus with pink, angular spores. Phylogenetically related to Entoloma.

Rickenella Raithelh. 1973
Small, quite brightly coloured mushrooms with cap umbilicate when mature and decurrent gills. Saprobic on soil, often amongst mosses. Differs from Omphalina in having cheilocystidia. A single New Zealand species.
Ripartites P. Karst. 1879
Medium sized slender mushrooms with no veil remnants, on soil. Spore print pale brown to pinkish. Spores with densely warted or spiny walls. A single New Zealand species.
Rosellinia De Not. 1844

Solitary, more or less globose perithecia, often pointed slightly around the single, apical ostiole, often in large gregarious groups. Surrounded by a fine mat of hyphae, although this can be lost with age. Developing on the surface of fallen wood, the wood often recently dead.

About 20 species has been reported for New Zealand, mostly indigenous. Only those species listed below have been treated in the Virtual Mycota.

Rozites P. Karst. 1879

Spore print rusty brown. Cap about 5-10 cm diam., typically sticky or glutinous, with irregular, scale-like patches, often striate near the margin; stalk with a well-developed, persistent, striate ring.

Molecular studies have shown that the characters used to recognise Rozites (glutinous cap and striate ring) have evolved indepently several times. Most New Zealand species of Rozites have now been placed in a very broadly-defined Cortinarius .

Like all Cortinarius species, Rozites is ectomycorrhizal, mostly under Nothofagus, but R. australiensis (= Cortinarius australiensis) is found under tea tree.

Rozites can be confused with Descolea - also mycorrhizal under Nothofagus and tea tree and also with a persistent, striate ring on the stalk. Descolea differs in microscopic characters, and most species are smaller than Rozites, and they typically have a dry cap.

Russula Pers. 1796

Spore print white or yellow. Cap up to about 10 cm diam., sunken towards the centre, smooth, or with radiate ridges near margin (‘pectinate’), or scaly in one species. Colour varying between species, yellow-brown, red, purple, or green, the colours washing out in wet weather or with age. Flesh white, sometimes darkeing on exposure to air, brittle, snaps easily. Gills white to yellow, sometimes staining darker in patches with damage, colours varying between species. Stipe white or with hints of the colour of the cap, cylindric or tapering slightly towards the base, no ring.

Russula species are ectomycorrhizal, always found on the soil close to their host trees. The indigenous species are confined to either Nothofagus forests or to stands of tea-tree, where they are often found in large numbers in the autumn. There is at least one exotic species, R. sororia, found under the introduced trees Quercus and Fagus.

There have been about 30 indigenous species described from New Zealand. Because colour is important in their identification and because the colours wash out in the rain, identification to species level can be difficult without a microscope.

Lactarius is ecologically and macroscopically similar, but when damaged the flesh oozes a white or yellowish liquid. Macowanites is phylogenetically related to Russula, and is similar in colour to the red species, but it is a ‘secotioid’ fungus the gills never become exposed, remaining covered by a thin, white membrane.

Rutstroemia macrospora (Peck) Kanouse 1940
ITS sequence from New Zealand material (GenBank MK432745 ex PDD 97008; numerous other matching unpublished sequences)) does not match other putative R. macrospora specimens from N America and China [PRJ, Aug 2022]
Ryvardenia Rajchenb. 1994

Bracket fungi with a firm but not woody fruit-body composed of several lobes sharing a common base. Associated with a brown rot.

One species in New Zealand.

Sarcodon Quél. ex P. Karst. 1881

Dark brown, velvety caps, with dark brown stalks. Two species are recorded from New Zealand.

Sarcodon thwaitesii is widespread in tropical Asia. The fact that it has been recorded to the very south of New Zealand suggests that a different species may be involved. Tropical species typically are restricted to more northern areas. S. ionides is recorded from Europe and New Zealand. Associated with indigenous forests in New Zealand, the New Zealand population is likely to be genetically distinct.

Schizophyllum Fr. 1815

Small, tough and leathery fruiting bodies attached laterally directly to the substrate. Characterised by the unusual gills appearaing split or grooved along their length. Spore print white.

A single species in New Zealand, the cosmopolitan Schizophyllum commune.

Common throughout the country, often in exposed situations and on large pieces of fallen wood, for example wind-blown trees on the margins of forests. Whether or not this fungus is indigenous to New Zealand is unknown.

Saprobe on wood. Tough, leathery fruiting bodies attached laterally with no stipe. Gills longitudinally split or grooved. One species in New Zealand.

Schizopora Velen. 1922

Polypore fungi forming thin, crust-like fruiting bodies on dead wood. The surface of the fruiting bodies is covered with irregular pores and is cream with an orange tinge. Causes a white rot (i.e. produces enzymes that can degrade all components of wood cell walls).

Two species occur in New Zealand, the most common being the cosmopolitan S. radula. S. radula is widely distributed in native forests, but is also found in disturbed sites outside forests. It is genetically very similar to populations from Europe and could have been introduced by humans and subsequently invaded native forests.

Phylogenetically this genus is now widely accepted as a synonym of Hyphodontia despite the superficial difference of pores versus teeth.

Polypore fungi forming thin, crust-like fruiting bodies on dead wood, associated with a white rot.

Two species occur in New Zealand, the most common being the cosmopolitan S. radula.

Scleroderma Pers. 1801

The earthballs. This genus is characterised by a hard, rind-like yellow or brownish spore case, with or without a stout sterile base, and opening through an irregular pore or sometimes in an irregular star-like manner. When immature the flesh inside the fruiting body is purple in colour, compared to the white-coloured flesh of puffballs.

Mycorrhizal with the tea-tree species and with exotic species such as oak.

There are 5 species reported for New Zealand and all should be regarded as poisonous.

Exctomycorrhizal, puff-ball-like fungi, dark purple inside when immature (compared to the white flesh of the 'true' puffballs), brown, powdery spore masses when mature, opening by irregular, ragged hole, the opening often very large with time. Following spore release the folded-back remains of the walls of the fruiting body may perist for some time.

Both indigenous and exotic species, poorly understood taxonomically for New Zealand.

Scytinopogon Singer 1945

Branched, white fruiting bodies on soil. Spores white, angular Ramaria has pale brown spores.

Possibly only a single species in New Zealand.

Scytinostroma Donk 1956

Corticioid fungi on dead wood.

Taxonomically poorly understood, at least 4 species in New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Serpula lacrymans (Wulfen) J. Schröt. 1888 [1889]
IMC11 Programme Book 1.2-177 Population genomics of the globetrotter Serpula lacrymans reveal tight bottleneck and local adaptations. I. Skrede1, C. Murat2, J. Hess1, J.H. Sønstebø1, S. Maurice1, A. Kohler2, D. Barry3, N. Högberg4, D. C. Eastwood5, F. Martin2, H. Kauserud1 1Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, NORWAY, 2Interactions Arbres- microorganismes, INRA-Lorraine University, Champenoux, FRANCE, 3Alcina, Montpellier, FRANCE, 4Department of Forest Pathology, Swedish Agricultural University, Uppsala, SWEDEN, 5Department of Biosciences, University of Swansea, Swansea, UNITED KINGDOM Abstract: The bolete Serpula lacrymans is likely the most devastating fungal wood-decayer of construction materials in temperate regions worldwide. From its native range in North East Asia is has spread to most other continents, including Europe and Southern Oceania, as well as other parts of Asia (Japan). In this study, we performed population genomics analyses of 39 isolates from these three regions in order to assess differences across the invasive populations. More specific, we wanted to analyse the demographic history and level of intra-geographic structuring and local adaptations in the invasive populations. The three populations, Europe, Japan and New Zealand (the latter only represented by three isolates) were strongly differentiated. The European population had clearly gone through a tight bottleneck during its establishment while the Japanese population is far more diverse. Long genomic blocks without genetic diversity in Europe suggest a single founding event, with no secondary migration from the native regions. In both regions, there was a clear geographic substructuring, indicating dispersal limitations. Coalescence simulations was used to study the time since the populations diverged and the changes in effective population size. In scans for genetic adaptations in the two populations, we identified three outlier loci subject to purifying selection. These were linked to transport and decay, and support that these functions are particularly important in the human-made habitats of S. lacrymans worldwide. Of the three isolates from New Zealand, one had an admixed genomic make up with genetic elements from both the European and the Japanese populations. Since the original ‘out of Asia’ dispersal events, our analyses indicate that the dry rot fungus has travelled between continents, also giving rise to admixed genotypes.
Simocybe P. Karst. 1879

Small, stalked saprobic mushrooms on wood. Characterised by smooth, brown spores with no germ pore, no veil remnants on stipe, and a pileipellis with an upright, palisade-like structure.

Six species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Skeletocutis Kotl. & Pouzar 1958

Polypore fungi forming crust-like fruiting bodies on dead wood, causing a white rot.

Six species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Sorokina Sacc.
Several PDD specimens initially identified as Sorokina have cultures available. The ITS sequences suggest several species across both Sclerococcum and Rhizodiscina
Sphaerobolus Tode 1790

Tiny fruiting body partly immersed in rotten wood, open to reveal a single, canonball-like structure within which the spores are held. Saprobic.

Sporisorium Ehrenb. ex Link 1825

On seeds of cultivated grasses or cereals. Spores black, not intermixed with sterile elements, accumulated in balls.

There are 2 species in New Zealand, both exotic.

Squamanita Imbach 1946

Known from two specimens from one locality, this genus is represented in New Zealand by a single, rare species. The genus has superficial similarities to Amanita, with copious veil remnants and a bulbous, almost volva-like base. It differs by the inamyloid spores, adnexed rather than free lamallae, and in the anatomy of the gill trama.

Stecchericium D.A. Reid 1963
Corticioid fungi on dead wood, basidiocarps effused-reflexed, upper surface tomentose to velutinous, fertile surface spiny. One New Zealand species.
Stemonitis Gled. 1753

Fruiting body stalked sporangium, sporangium tall-cylindric, usually in large clusters, stalk hollow, slender, smooth, black. Outer wall layer lost with maturity. Spore mass dark. Nine species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Stemonitopsis (Nann.-Bremek.) Nann.-Bremek. 1975 [1974]

Fruiting body stalked sporangium, sporangium tall-cylindric, stalk solid, shorter than sporangium. Outer wall layer lost with maturity. Spore mass dark. Two species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Stereopsis D.A. Reid 1965

Fruiting body spathulate-flabellate, irregularly in shape, lobed or even forming small rosettes, soft when alive, brittle when dry, fertile surface smooth or with radial ridges. Saprobes on dead wood.

One species reported from New Zealand.

Stereum Pers. 1794

Fruiting bodies on mostly fallen wood, very thin and with a smooth undersurface.

There are at least 12 species of Stereum in New Zealand, some that ‘bleed’ when cut.

Many other fungi previously called Stereum, with similar ‘sterioid’ features, have been renamed in several other genera distinguished on the basis of microscopic features.

Corticioid fungi forming resupinate to pileate fruiting bodies with upper surface typically tomentose at least when young, underside smooth and in some species bleeding when cut.

More than 10 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Stigmatolemma Kalchbr. 1882

Basidiomycetes with small, cup-shaped to almost globose fruiting bodies, gregarious amongst a dense subiculum. Saprobic on dead wood.

Two species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Stilbohypoxylon Henn. 1902
Solitary, more or less globose perithecia. Distinguished from Rosellinia by the rugose perithecial surface, and by the asexual state forming short pegs on the outside of the perithecial wall. A single species on tree fern fronds.
Stropharia (Fr.) Quél. 1872

Spore print purple-brown to black. Small to medium-sized mushrooms, the cap often brightly coloured and typically slightly tacky when fresh. Gills attached, stalk central, with a ring. Saprobic, on soil ilawns as well as small pieces of wood, in wood chip mulches, etc.

There are at least 4 species in New Zealand, all exotic, found on lawns, in parks and gardens.

Distinguished from Psilocybe, also a saprobe and found in similar situations, microscopically. Agrocybe has a brown rather than purple-brown spore print and a drier cap.

Most Psilocybe and all Stropharia species are introduced to New Zealand, and are common and widespread in human habitats such as rough pastures and wood chip mulches. Some Psilocybe species are found on dung.

Spore prints of both species often have a lilac tinge; they are distinguished by the occurence of chrysocystidia in Stropharia.

Five species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Stypella Möller 1895

A member of the Tremellales (the Order characterised by cruciately septate basidia, each sterigma having its own cell). The fruiting body more or less flattened against the substrate, bearing spines or short pegs, with large gloeocystidia projecting from the tips of the spines. Saprobic on wood.

Two species have been reported from New Zealand.

Suillus Gray 1821

The slippery jacks. Large boletes, characterised by a slimy cap. The stalk is often dotted with small, dark glands, and there is sometimes a veil covering the pores when young, forming a ring aropund the stalk when mature. All species in New Zealand are associated with introduced trees. Mycorrhizal.

There are about six species in New Zealand, S. brevipes under several conifers, S. grevillei under larch, S. lakei under douglas fir, and S. granulatus, S. luteus, and S. subacerbus under pines.

Large boletes, characterised by a slimy cap. All species in New Zealand are associated with introduced plants.

Eight species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Symphytocarpus Ing & Nann.-Bremek. 1967

Fruiting body a tubular network across surface of substrate. Outer wall layer lost with maturity. Spore mass dark. Two species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Tatraea macrospora (Peck) Baral 1999
A recent publication based mostly on specimens from China (Li et al. 2024, DOI: 10.3897/mycokeys.102.112565), has allowed us to confirm that Tatraea macrospora has been incorrectly reported as present in New Zealand. This name has long been used for a discomycete fungus that is very common on fallen rotting wood in New Zealand forests. However, by incorporating previously unpublished DNA sequences from PDD specimens and ICMP cultures into the global dataset from the Chinese paper, we have shown that the New Zealand species is unnamed and possibly endemic. Similar discomycetes have been reported also from Australia but whether these are the same as the New Zealand species is as yet unknown. Our DNA sequencing showed that there are three additional less common Tatraea species in New Zealand, all unnamed.
Tatraea Svrček 1993 [1992]
A recent publication based mostly on specimens from China (Li et al. 2024, DOI: 10.3897/mycokeys.102.112565), has allowed us to confirm that Tatraea macrospora has been incorrectly reported as present in New Zealand. This name has long been used for a discomycete fungus that is very common on fallen rotting wood in New Zealand forests. However, by incorporating previously unpublished DNA sequences from PDD specimens and ICMP cultures into the global dataset from the Chinese paper, we have shown that the New Zealand species is unnamed and possibly endemic. Similar discomycetes have been reported also from Australia but whether these are the same as the New Zealand species is as yet unknown. Our DNA sequencing showed that there are three additional less common Tatraea species in New Zealand, all unnamed.
Tephrocybe Donk 1962
Nondescript mushrooms on soil, often with long, rooting stipe. A single species reported from New Zealand as an 'ammonia fungus'.
Thaxterogaster Singer 1951

Pouch fungi with a more or less globose head on a usually well-developed stalk (a few species with short stalk or the stalk almost lacking). All with rough-walled, brown spores. More than 15 species, all indigenous, possibly all endemic.

Mycorrhizal with beech and tea-tree.

The Thaxterogaster species form a phylogenetically artificial group, and are now regarded as members of the large genus Cortinarius, but they are treated under their old names in this Guide as they are such a macroscopically distinctive group.

Thelephora Ehrh. ex Willd. 1787

Fruiting body vase-shaped to fan-like, often in large clusters, tough, pliable. Saprobes on soi or rotting wood.

Two species in New Zealand.

Timgrovea Bougher & Castellano 1993

Truffle-like, ectomycorrhizal fungi. Hymenogaster-like fungi (lacking a columella, with basal rhizomorphs) characterised as a genus by the reticulate spores. Possibly related to the Boletaceae.

Represented by a single New Zealand collection, from beneath Nothofagus.

Tolyposporium Woronin ex J. Schröt. 1887 [1889]

On Juncaceae. Spores black, not intermixed with sterile elements, accumulated in balls.

There are 2 species in New Zealand, both indigenous.

Tomentella Pat. 1887

Fruiting body brown, thin, resupinate, Spores ornamented. Saprobes on soil, wood, humus, rock.

Five species in New Zealand. Only those listed below have images or descriptions available in NZFungi.

Trametes Fr. 1836

Fruiting bodies typically in groups, thin, with poroid, usually white to cream, lower surface and concentric, smooth to hairy upper surface.

At least six species in New Zealand with T. versicolor the most common in urban environments.

Polypore fungi forming leathery, bracket-shaped fruit-bodies on wood, causing a white rot.

Five species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Trechispora P. Karst. 1890

Corticioid fungi on wood.

Five species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Tremella Pers. 1794

Tremella species have fruiting bodies up to about 5 cm across, made up of a series of irregular, flattened lobes. There are several species reported from New Zealand. The white T. fuciformis is the most common, and in Asia is cultivated as an edible mushroom. Other New Zealand species include the yellow or orange-coloured T. lutescens, T. mesenterica and T. tawa, and the red-brown T. vesiculosa.

Saprobic on fallen wood.

A member of the Tremellales (the Order characterised by cruciately septate basidia, each sterigma having its own cell). The fruiting body convoluted, cerebriform, up to 3 cm tall, spores globose. Saprobic on wood.

Seven species have been reported from New Zealand. Only those listed below are treated in the Virtual Mycota.

Tremellodendropsis (Corner) D.A. Crawford 1954

Tough, coral-like fungus with white, narrow, highly branched fruiting body. Saprobic on soil.

At least 3 species reported from New Zealand.

Clavarioid fungi, fruiting bodies highly branched, the branches narrow. Most commonly found on soil, but sometimes on litter.

Taxonomically poorly understood, at least 5 species in New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Trichia Haller 1768

Fruiting body a sessile or stalked sporangium, or tubular network across surface of substrate. After the wall of the fruiting body breaks the elastic filaments amongst the spores expand in a tangled mass of very fine filaments. Spore mass initially yellow or brown. Nine species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Tricholoma (Fr.) Staude 1857

Spore print white. Medium to large-sized, robust, fleshy mushrooms, cap smooth or with small fine scales, stalk entral with no ring, gills adnexed (notched near stalk), always on soil.

Tricholoma species are ectomycorrhizal, always found on the soil close to their host trees. The indigenous species are confined to either Nothofagus forests or to stands of tea-tree.

Only 3 indigenous species have been described, the pale brownish to buff, tough-stalked T. bubalinum, the greenish T. viridiolivaceum, and the less common, orange-brown T. elegens. There may be other undescribed native species. Several exotic species have been introduced along with their mycorrhizal hosts, including members of the T. pessundatum and T. terreum groups under pines, and the European larch-associated T. psamopus.

Other large, white-spored mushrooms on soil include Russula (gills not notched, flesh rittle, snapping when bent), Lactarius (similar to Russula but with latex oozing from flesh where damaged), Amanita (often with a ring on stalk and a separate sack-like layer at base of stalk, usually with scales on cap), and Collybia (smaller, tough stalk).

Medium sized to large, fleshy mushrooms with adnexed gills, rarely with veil remnants, spores smooth, white, nonamyloid, cheilocystidia lacking. Ectomycorrhizal.

Poorly understood taxonomically, more than 10 species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Tricholomopsis Singer 1939

Large, white-spored, wood inhabiting mushrooms. There are 2 species reported from New Zealand, the caps of both species are densely covered with red-brown scales, and with bright yellow gills. No ring on stalk. Spore print white. Saprobic.

There are two species reported from New Zealand, one thought to be exotic (T. rutilans), the other native (T. ornaticeps). T. ornaticeps is known from very few collections, and no critical comparison appears to have been made between the two species.

Macroscopically and biologically very similar to Gymnopilus, with Tricholomopsis distinguished by its white spore print.

Medium sized to large, fleshy mushrooms saprobic on wood. Cap squamulose, gills adnexed, stipe lacking veil remnants. Spores white, smooth, nonamyloid; cheilocystidia present.

Two species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Tubaria (W.G. Sm.) Gillet 1876

Saprobic mushrooms on dead plant material, with smooth, brown spores with no germ pore. A non-descript genus not common in New Zealand.

Poorly understood for New Zealand, several of the species reported may have been misidentified.

Tubifera J.F. Gmel. 1792

Fruiting body a dense mass of cylindrical sporangia, dark brown. One species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Tubulicrinis Donk 1956

Corticioid fungi forming thin, effused fruiting bodies on fallen wood.

Five species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Tulostoma Pers. 1794

Small puffballs with the globose spore case raised on a discrete, narrow stalk.

There are 5 species reported for New Zealand, usually found on sand dunes.

The stalked puffball, with a long, narrow stipe. In New Zealand found on sand dunes.

Several species have been recorded from New Zealand, but poorly understood taxonomically. Only those species listed below treated in the Virtual Mycota.

Tylopilus P. Karst. 1881
Two species in New Zealand, both indigenous. Ectomycorrhizal, both species common under tea-tree and beech. These species lack yellow colours and have no blueing reaction when damaged. The spore print is vinaceous.

Ectomycorrizal under beech and tea-tree. Large, dry, dark-coloured boletes, common. Lacking yellow colours or a blueing reaction when damaged, spore print vinaceous.

Two species in New Zealabnd.

Tympanella E. Horak 1971

Endemic species and genus, common on litter throughout the country. Subsecotioid, with the somewhat distorted gills typically covered by the edge of the cap.

Tyromyces P. Karst. 1881

Resupinate or irregular, compound fruiting bodies, resupinate sometimes with edges folding back to reveal the upper surface.

Taxonomically poorly understood, probably at least 10 species in New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Uredo Pers. 1801

Uredo spp. are known from their asexual state only. Distinguished from Aecidium and Caeoma by having spores borne singly on distinct peicels and lacking a peridium.

Twenty-three species have been reported from New Zealand, 22 of these indigenous, 15 endemic. Only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Vararia P. Karst. 1898

Corticioid fungi on fallen wood.

Taxonomically poorly understood, at least 6 species in New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Vascellum F. Šmarda 1958

Small puffballs found on soil, with a distinct cellular sterile base, plus a distinct skin-like membrane (diaphragm) separating the spore mass from the base.

There is a single species reported from New Zealand.

More or less globose fruiting body with a sterile, stalk-like base, opening through a regularly-shaped pore. Internal tissue white when young, powdery brown when mature. Distinguished from Lycoperdon by the well-developed membrane layer between the spores and the base. Mostly found in grassy places.

A single, exotic species recorded from New Zealand.

Vezdaea Tscherm.-Woess & Poelt 1976
Trees based on LSU and ITS sequences from DNA extracted from individual apothecia taken from PDD 108693 immediately after collecting. LSU close to Vezdaea leprosa sequences in Genbank. Vezdaea cobria is genetically distant, suggesting the genus sensu Lumbsch (2009) is not monophyletic. This is the only ITS sequence available for Vezdaea.
ML trees from FastTree as implemented in Geneious 10.
Volvaria (Fr.) P. Kumm. 1871

The single species referred to this genus in New Zealand was reported by Cooke & Massee in 1890. No original material exists, and no further specimens have been found, making the occurence of this genus in New Zealand uncertain.

Volvariella Speg. 1899

The cap is campanulate or conical, white or grey , and silky. The gills are white turning deep pink. The stem does not have a ring, but is enclosed by a large volva at the base. Spore print pink.

Only two species are known in New Zealand. V. surrecta occurs in native forests where it fruits on old mushrooms of other species. It is rare and listed as 'nationally critical'. The second species, V. speciosa is likely to have been introduced, favours manured pastures and lawns and is sometimes found in great quantities on heavily manured arable stubbles from spray free cereals.

Saprobic on soil. Large mushrooms with pink spores and a conspicuous volva. The exotic V. speciosa is quite common in human habitats (grassy paddocks and wood chip mulches), whereas V. surrecta is known from a single specimen from native forest.

Weraroa Singer 1958

Secotioid basidiomycetes with well-developed stalks. All with smooth, brown spores with a germ pore. Probably an unnatural, polyphyletic group. At least one New Zealand species, W. erythrocephala, is closely related to Leratiomyces similis, a morphologically similar genus from New Caledonia.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand; all are common and easily distinguished by colour. Saprobes on wood and soil.

Distinguished microscopically from the superficially similar Nivatogastrium (also with 3 New Zealand species, but less common) microscopically.

Saprobe on wood and soil. Secotioid basidiomycetes, distinguished from Nivatogastrium by a lack of chrysocystidia.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Willkommlangea Kuntze 1891

Fruiting body a tubular network on surface of substrate, outer wall layer pale yellow to chestnut brown, middle layer lime-encrusted. Spore mass dark. One species in New Zealand.

Note that only those species listed below have images or descriptions available through the Virtual Mycota.

Wrightoporia Pouzar 1966

Polypore fungi with white to creamy, thin, crust-like fruiting bodies.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Xerocomus Quél. 1887

At least 7 indigenous species, and several exotic. Caps dry, finely felted. The genus is defined by the anatomical structure of the pores.

Of the native species Xerocomus griseoolivaceus occurs under tea-tree, the others all under Nothofagus. Each of these is mentioned below.

Of the exotic species, Xerocomus chrysenteron, occuring under exotic broadleafed trees, has a dry, irregularly-creviced cap which shows a red or pink colour in the crevices, red streaked stipe, and pores which rapidly turn blue where damaged. X. rubellus, red cap, under Salix. X. porosporus has been reported from under oak.

Ectomycorrizal under beech and tea-tree, with one introduced species. Boletes with dry, finely felted caps. The genus is characterised microscipically, in part with respect to trama type.

Ten species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Xeromphalina Kühner & Maire 1934

Small, Marasmius-like mushrooms on fallen wood. Stipe dark, tough, fruiting body often reviving. Distinguished from Marasmius by the usually yellow to orange gills and amyloid spores.

Three species have been reported from New Zealand, only those listed below have descriptions or images available from NZFungi.

Xylaria Hill ex Schrank 1789

Xylaria is characterised by upright fruiting bodies, black on the outside, with white flesh inside. Xylaria castorea, a very common species, has irregularly-shaped fruiting bodies, often flattened and paddle-shaped.

Saprobic on fallen wood and dead leaves. Xylaria hypoxylon (one of several species with a small, pointed, sterile apex) is typically found on wood in running water. The leaf-inhabiting species have extremely narrow, thread-like fruiting bodies.

The name Penzigia is sometimes used for Xylaria-like fungi with globose fruiting bodies with no stalk. There are several New Zealand species with this form of fruiting body, but they have not been studied, and are phylogenetically the same as Xylaria.

Upright, cylindrical fruiting bodies with a sterile basal part and the upper part lined with a single layer of perithecia in the outer layers of the fruiting body. The internal tissue white.

Fifteen or more species in New Zealand, all indigenous. There are several undescribed penzigioid species Only those species listed below have been treated in the Virtual Mycota.

Zelleromyces Singer & A.H. Sm. 1960

A truffle-like fungus related to the mushrooms genus Lactarius. As with these mushrooms, the flesh of Zelleromyces oozes a white sap when cut. Ectomycorrhizal.

A single New Zealand species.

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10 May 2011
21 January 2022
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