NEW ZEALAND: North Island: Gisborne: Urewera National Park: Lake Waikareiti, under N. fusca - N. menziesii, 13.V.1975, leg. TAYLOR (982); Lake Waikareiti, near Headquarter N.P., under N. solandri - Leptospermum sp., 31.V.1981, leg. HORAK (ZT 1440). - South Island: Nelson: Tophouse Saddle, under N. solandri var. cliffortioides (in Sphagnum swamp), 3.III.1968, leg. HORAK, PDD 27175, holotype (ZT 68/98, isotype). - Westcoast: S-shore of Lake Hochstetter, under N. solandri var. cliffortioides, 17.III.1968, leg. HORAK (ZT 68/178). - Otago: Lake Ohau, Temple Creek, under N. solandri, 13.IV.1969. leg. TAYLOR (444); same locality, 22.III.1970, leg. TAYLOR (579). - Southland: Lake Te Anau, E-shore, under N. fusca-menziesii-solandri, 26.II.1982, leg. HORAK (ZT 1901); Lake Te Anau, W-shore, under N. solandri, 7.IV.1969, leg. NEWSTEAD in TAYLOR (457). — Steward Island: Christmas Village, under L. scoparium, 14.III.1969, leg. HORAK (ZT 1432).

Pileus -60 (-80) mm, hemispherical becoming convex, centre broadly umbonate to campanulate or flat and expanded, margin inrolled; brilliant yellow turning yellow-brown (especially at disk) with age; dry, neither hygrophanous nor striate, minutely to coarsely innate-fibrillose or subsquamulose (in dry condition), in young specimens margin covered by yellow fibrillose veil remnants. - Lamellae crowded, emarginate, sometimes decurrent with short tooth; golden yellow turning mustard yellow then brown-yellow, edges entire, concolorous. - Stipe -80 x -30 mm, fusoid to bulbous with root-like base, rarely cylindrical; yellow, yellow-brown in aged specimens; dry, below yellow cortina with 1-3 persistent, membranaceous, yellow to yellow-brown belts of veil, at first solid becoming hollow, single, rarely cespitose. - Context yellow to orange-yellow. - Odour none. - Taste bitter. - Chemical reactions on pileus: KOH - red to red-brown, NH3-pink to pale orange, HCl - negative. Spore print (yellow-)brown with rusty shade. - Spores (7-) 7.5-8.5(-9) x 4-5 µm, ovoid, yellow-brown with rusty tinge, minutely asperulate at apex, ± smooth in immature spores, membrane thinwalled. - Basidia 20-35 x 6-8 µm, 4-spored. - Cystidia absent, but edge of lamellae often covered with articulate cells, terminal cell clavate to vesiculose (10-35 x 6-10 µm), membrane hyaline, pigment absent. - Pileipellis a cutis composed of cylindrical hyphae (5-10 µm diam.), terminal cells rarely fusoid, membranes thin-walled, not gelatinized, smooth, with red to orange plasmatic pigment dissolving in KOH, rarely also with encrusting and/or intercellular pigment. - Clamp connections present.

On soil among litter in Nothofagus-forests (N. solandri var. cliffortioides, N. menziesii and/or N. fusca; often in association with conifers viz. Libocedrus bidwillii, Phyllocladus alpinus, Ph. glaucus, Podocarpus nivalis both in Sphagnum swamps and on dry sites), rarely also under Leptospermum scoparium. - New Zealand.

Pileus -80 mm, hemisphaericus dein campanulatus vel planus, luteus, aetate luteobrunneus, siccus, innate fibrillosus. Lamellae emarginatae, luteae dein brunneae. Stipes -80 x 30 mm, fusoideus vel bulbosoturbinatus, pileo concolor, infra cortina lutea zonis concoloribus submembranaceisque praeditus, siccus. Caro lutea vel aurantiaca. Odor saporque amari. KOH - ruber vel castaneus. Sporae 7.5-8.5 x 4-5 µm, ovoideae, minute asperulatae, luteobrunneae. Cystidia nulla. Ad terram in silvis nothofagineis, raro sub Leptospermo. Novazelandia.

In New Zealand Nothofagus-forests D. canaria is a common species met within a remarkably wide ecological range. This Dermocybe is readily identified by the brilliant yellow colours of the often rather robust carpophores with fusoid to bulbous stipes. The most distinctive microscopical feature are ± smooth spores whose roughened apices are covered with very inconspicuous asperulate warts. KOH turns the yellow pigment on all parts of the carpophore immediately red. Chromatographic pigment analysis showed that physcion and erythroglaucin are the most abundant anthraquinones of D. canaria. In addition another metabolite, 4-aminophyscion (KELLER & STEGLICH, 1987), was isolated representing the first record of a natural anthraquinone with an amino group. Adding the macroscopical, microscopical and chemical characters D. canaria obviously occupies an isolated taxonomic position within the infrageneric frame of Dermocybe.

Holotypus PDD 27175.