On rotting wood, Orakei, Purewa Bush, Auckland district, 26.8.1950, D. W. McKenzie 19051.

Hairs obtuse, thinwalled, granulate, up to 50 x 3 µ, asci 45-50 x 4 µ, ascospores 6-8 x 1-1.75 µ, paraphyses lanceolate, 3 µ wide.

The apothecia are old and discoloured with rather short hairs but obviously belong to some member of the D. virgineus complex.

NEW ZEALAND: Auckland, Orakei, Purewa Bush, on undetermined rotten wood, 26 viii 1950, leg. D.W. McKenzie, PDD 19051 [incorrectly cited as "(Holotype, K)"]. ENGLAND: Sussex, Wakehurst Place, on wood of Quercus sp., 30 xii 1967., leg. R.W.G. Dennis.

APOTHECIA 1.5-3.0 mm high, 1-2 mm diam., long-stipitate, usually densely gregarious, clustered but not caespitose, superficial. DISC concave, pale orange-brown, smooth, obscured by the inrolled margin when dry. RECEPTACLE shallow cupulate, concolorous, rather sparsely clothed with hairs, often irregular or lobed at the margin, incurved on 2 or 3 sides when dry. STIPE central, cylindric, or slightly tapered, often slightly flared at the base, slender and often curved or flexuous, up to 2 mm high, 150-200 µm diam., similarly clothed with hairs. HAIRS drying pale buff, whitish when rehydrated, cylindric, obtuse, often curved or flexuous, thin-walled, septate, granulate throughout, 60-90 x 3.0-3.5(-4.0) µm. ASCI 50-56 x 4.0-4.5 µm, 8-spored, narrowly cylindric-clavate, tapered at the base, apex conical, the pore blue in Melzer's reagent. ASCOSPORES 5.5-8.0 x 1.5-2.0, mean 6.5 (SD 0.6) x 1.7 (SD 0.1) µm, hyaline, clavate-ellipsoid, often inequilateral, rounded at the ends, non-septate, irregularly biseriate. PARAPHYSES narrowly lanceolate, hyaline, septate towards the base, 2.5-3.0(-3.5) µm diam., usually exceeding the asci by <5 µm. SUBHYMENIUM 15-20 µm thick, composed of closely woven, hyaline hyphae 1.5-2.0 µm diam. MEDULLARY EXCIPULUM composed in the stipe of vertically arranged hyaline, septate hyphae 2.5-3.0 µm diam. forming a textura porrecta, becoming interwoven in the centre of the receptacle to form a compact textura intricate of slightly narrower hyphae 2-0-2.5 µm diam., but remaining parallel in a layer 25-40 µm thick adjacent to the ectal excipulum in the flanks of the receptacle. ECTAL EXCIPULUM 25-30 µm thick, composed of hyaline, thin-walled prismatic cells 15-20(-25) x 4.0-6.5 µm, lying in rows almost parallel to the surface.

Europe, North Africa, New Zealand.

On many kinds of rotten wood.

MATERIAL EXAMINED: NEW ZEALAND, North Island, Manawatu Region, Manawatu Gorge Scenic Reserve, on decaying leaves of Freycinetia banksii, 30 April 1997, S.R. Whitton HKU(M)5080 (IFRD212-013); North Island, Auckland Region, Hunua Ranges, Wairoa-Cosseys track, on decaying leaves of F. banksii, 23 May 1996, S.R. Whitton HKU(M)4971 (IFRD215-016); North Island, Wellington Region, in the forest alongside Akatarawa Hill Road, on decaying leaves of F. banksii, 1 May 1997, S.R. Whitton HKU(M)14036 (IFRD154-007); North Island, Wellington Region, Wainuiomata Valley, in the forest surrounding Wainuiomata Reservoir, on decaying leaves of F. banksii, 6 May 1997, S.R. Whitton HKU(M)14037 (IFRD154-008).

NOTES: Four species of Lachnum have stipitate, white apothecia, with small aseptate, cylindric ascospores and lanceolate paraphyses: L. candidum (Rodway) Spooner, L. curtipulum Spooner, L. nudipes and L. virgineum (Batsch) P. Karst. All four species are similar in overall morphology, differing mainly in regard to ascospore shape and dimensions, and paraphyses width and length (Spooner, 1987). In L. nudipes the ascospores are narrowly fusoid, aseptate and 11–15 × 1.5–2 µm, and the paraphyses are broadly lanceolate (4.5–7 µm wide) and 20–30 µm longer than the asci (Spooner, 1987). The ascospores dimensions in L. curtipilum are 5.5–8 × 1.5–2 µm, which is almost identical to that found in the current specimens, whilst the ascospores are 7–10.5 × 1.5–2 µm in L. virgineum, and 7–11.5 × 2–2.5 µm in L. candidum (Spooner, 1987). Even though the ascospores of L. curtipilum are reported to be clavate-ellipsoid (Spooner, 1987), and the spores of the present specimens are all short cylindrical to ellipsoid, the dimensions fit better with L. curtipilum than they do for L. virgineum.