COMPOSITAE: Senecio kirkii: Auckland, Waipoua Kauri Forest. CONIFERAE. Podocarpus hallii: Wellington, Mt. Holdsworth, 1,200 m. Podocarpus totara: Otago, Ulva Islet, Stewart Island. MELIACEAE. Dysoxylum spectabile: Auckland, Huia, 30 m. ONAGRACEAE. Fuchsia excorticata: Auckland, Te Araroa, 200 m. Wellington, Mt. Tongariro, 850 m; Blyth Track, Ohakune, 700 m; Featherston, 50 m; Totara Reserve, Pohangina Valley, 100 m. RUBIACEAE. Coprosma australis: Auckland, Mamaku Forest, 580 m. Coprosma foetidissima: Taranaki, Mt. Egmont, 950 m. SAPINDACEAE. Dodonaea viscosa: Auckland, Rangitoto Island. VIOLACEAE. Melicytus ramiflorus: Auckland, Huia, coast. Wellington, Totara Reserve, Pohangina Valley, 80 m.

Hymenophore annual, cretaceous, adherent, effused forming numerous linear colonies 5-15 x 2-3 mm, merging to form linear areas 9-15 cm long; hymenial surface chalk white, sometimes tinted cream, even, not creviced, occasionally finely faveolate; margin thinning out, membranous, white, sharply defined, adherent. Context white, 10-120 µm thick, basal layer of a few repent parallel hyphae, intermediate layer of erect hyphae embedding masses of crystals which extend between basidia and paraphyses ; generative hyphae 2.5-3 µm diameter, walls 0.2 µm thick, naked, with clamp connections. Hymenial layer to 50 µm deep, a close palisade of basidia and paraphyses. Basidia clavate, 30-45 x 9-12 µm, bearing 2-4 spores; sterigmata stout, to 8 µm long. Paraphyses subclavate, 12-30 x 5-7 µm. Spores subglobose or oval, 7-9 µm diameter, or 7-9 x 6-7 µm, walls smooth, hyaline, 0.5 µm thick.

DISTRIBUTION: Northern Europe, New Zealand.

HABITAT: Effused on bark or decorticated wood of living or dead trunks and branches.

Tissues are so packed with crystals, which extend between basidia and paraphyses, that the hymenophore appears chalky and is difficult to section. As with many species of Corticium, different collections vary appreciably from one another in certain features. Those on Dodonaea and Podocarpus consist of numerous small elliptical colonies 5-15 mm long growing on living bark; on dead wood of Coprosma foetidissima they are continuous and extend to 15 cm; on dead wood of Fuchsia excorticata both conditions are present. Thickness of the context varies from 10 to 120 µm, with consequent differences in structure, thin plants possessing a scanty intermediate layer, whereas in thick specimens this tissue is well developed. When plants are growing on decorticated wood margins are often outlined by brown or black lines in the wood. Surface tissues are readily eaten by snails or insects. Spores are more globose or oval than those seen in European specimens, but in other features agree. Basidia with two or four spores occur in both, so that it would appear as if the original description and illustration were prepared from an immature specimen, since they call for basidia with two sterigmata and an occasional aborted third.

TYPE LOCALITY: Europe.