NEW ZEALAND: South Island: Nelson: Tophouse Saddle, among Sphagnum/rotten wood under N. solandri var. cliffortioides, 3.III.1968, leg. HORAK, PDD 27171, holotype (ZT 68/100, isotype); same locality, among Sphagnum under N. solandri var. cliffortioides, Phyllocladus alpinus, Podocarpus nivalis, 25. II. 1969, leg. HORAK (ZT 69/108). - Otago: Haast Pass, Makarora Valley, under N. menziesii, 19. X. 1964, leg. TAYLOR (203).

Pileus -25 mm, hemispherical or convex becoming umbonate expanded in aged carpophores; brilliant red-purple, blood red or dark maroon red; velvety to coarsely fibrillose or minutely squamulose; dry, not hygrophanous, margin non-striate, veil remnants absent. - Lamellae 12-15, -3, broadly emarginate and subdecurrent with short tooth; at first blood red turning concolorous with pileus, with orange to rust brown tinge, -4 mm wide, edges with red fimbriate seam. - Stipe - 5 x -3 mm, cylindrical, rarely with swollen base, single; concolorous with pileus, base often covered with pale ochre fibrils from veil; dry, fibrillose, cortina not persistent, hollow. - Context red, ochre in base of stipe. - Odour not distinctive. - Taste slightly raphanoid. - Chemical reactions on pileus: KOH-negative; HCl - orange. Spore print rust brown. - Spores 5.5-6(-6.5) x 3.5-4 µm, ovoid, minutely verrucose, rust brown. - Basidia 20-30 x 4-6 µm, 4-spored. - Cheilocystidia conspicuous, composed of articulated cell chains, terminal cells -60 x 20 µm, clavate, membranes thinwalled, with red plasmatic pigment. - Pileipellis a cutis or trichoderm composed of cylindrical hyphae (8-16 µm diam.), terminal cells cylindrical or fusoid-conical, membranes not gelatinized, with red(-purple) plasmatic pigment readily dissolving in KOH. - Clamp connections present.

On soil in litter or among Sphagnum (pakihi), rarely also on rotten wood, in Nothofagus forests (N. solandri var. cliffortioides, N. menziesii). - New Zealand.

Pileus -25 mm, hemisphaericus dein umbonatoplanus, ruber vel purpureocastaneus, velutinus vel subsquamulosus, siccus. Lamellae emarginatae, pileo concolores. Stipes -45 x -3 mm, cylindricus, pileo concolor, cortina fugacea. Sapor subraphanoideus. Sporae 5.5 - 6(-6.5) x 3.5 -4 µm ovoideae, minute verrucosae. Cheilocystidia conspicua pigmento rubro instructa. Fibulae praesentes. Ad terram vel inter Sphagna in silvis nothofagineis. Novazelandia.

This conspicuous species typically grows among Sphagnum in small bogs along the edge of Nothofagus-forests. It rarely was also observed on rotten wood of Nothofagus spp. The dark red D. purpurata may be distinguished from D. vinicolor, the second New Zealand taxon of Dermocybe with red colours, by the comparatively large basidiomes, by the smaller and less ornamented spores and by a pigment pattern which is characterized by the high concentration of physcion and dermocybinglucoside. Emodin, however, was not detected on chromatograms (KELLER & al., 1988).

Holotypus PDD 27171.