ADDITIONAL SPECIMENS EXAMINED: THREE KINGS IS: Great King I., on Kunzea ericoides, E. E. Chamberlain, Jan 1952, PDD 11360, 11378. NORTHLAND: vic. Brynderwyn, farmland adjacent Highway 1 about 2 km south of Brynderwyn, on dead standing K. ericoides, P. K. Buchanan 95/146, L. Ryvarden, 12 Apr 1995, PDD 66284; Waipoua Kauri Forest, on Beilschmiedia tawa, G. B. Rawlings, Dec 1951, PDD 10988; Waipoua Kauri Forest, on Rhopalostylis sapida, G. B. Rawlings, Mar 1940, PDD 4254. AUCKLAND: Hunua Ranges, Waharau Regional Park, on log of ?Nothofagus truncata, P. K. Buchanan 91/032, 16 May 1991, PDD 60307; Hunua Ranges Water Reserve, vic. Mangatangi Dam, on fallen wood, C. Tanaka, P. K. Buchanan 89/003, 1 Feb 1989, PDD 57405. WAIKATO: Waikaretu, 500 ft [ 150 m], on K. ericoides, E. E. Chamberlain, May 1965, PDD 17267. BAY OF PLENTY: Mt Te Aroha, track from Te Aroha Domain, on fallen wood, J. M. Trappe, 30 Apr 1988, PDD 48746. WELLINGTON: Days Bay, on Nothofagus fusca, G. B. Rawlings, 1946, PDD 5680. AUSTRALIA, NEW SOUTH WALES: Sydney, Lane Cove, on unknown host, Miss Langdon, May 1955, PDD 15116.

BASIDIOCARPS annual, imbricate, distinctly pileate to effused-reflexed; individual pilei broadly attached, semicircular to elongated along substrate and then often confluent with adjacent pilei, sometimes arising from broad effused parts (e.g., to 13 x 4 cm), usually convex with margin blunt to sharp and slightly in-curved, to 6 cm across, 4.5 cm radius, 12 mm thick; pileus surface white when fresh, drying pale brown (73.p.OY - 76.1y Br) or somewhat darker in old herbarium specimens, typically with margin (less often other parts) bruised reddish brown, weakly concentrically sulcate, glabrous to sometimes scrupose with brown, agglutinated bundles of hyphae which may become adpressed to surface; pore surface concolourous with upper surface, bruising greyish-brown (79.1.gy.y Br), in older herbarium specimens distinctly brown to reddish brown (58.m Br - 46.gy.r Br) and then hard and appearing resinous; pores angular, with thin dissepiments, 1-3 per mm; tubes concolourous with pore surface, to 7 mm long; context cream, homogeneous, distinctly paler than tubes in specimens with reddish brown tubes, to 5 mm thick; cortex absent. Odour of sweet spice. HYPHAL SYSTEM pseudo-dimitic in trama and context; generative hyphae of two morphologies: (a) hyaline, thin-walled, branched, clamped, mostly 2.5 µm diam. in trama, 2.5-4.5 µm diam. in context; (b) sclerified hyphae skeletal-like, abundant in trama and context, thick-walled (to 1.5 µm) to solid, sparingly branched, arising from thin-walled generative hyphae separated by a clamp, with very sparse clamp connections, 2.5-4.5 µm diam. in context, slightly narrower in trama; hyphae acyanophilous, IKI-, CB-. CYSTIDIA absent, but fusoid cystidioles occasionally seen (e.g., 17 x 3 µm). BASIDIA clavate, short-clavate in older parts of tube, those towards tube mouth tending to be basally elongated, 13-23 x 3.7-5.8 µm, clamped at base, 4-sterigmate. BASIDIOSPORES hyaline, allantoid to cylindrical, smooth- and thin-walled, acyanophilous,. IKI-, 5.5-8(-9) x 2-3 µm. WOOD ROT white.

DISTRIBUTION: In New Zealand, widespread in the North island including northern offshore islands. A single specimen is here recorded from Australia, but the species may well be relatively common there.

SUBSTRATA: Known from dead wood of a range of native angiosperm hosts, most commonly collected on Leptospermum and Kunzea (Myrtaceae).

Basidiomata annua, pileata, sessilia, effusa reflexa pileus leves ad scruposus, albus ad pallide brunnew^, pori fascies albus ad pallide brunneus, pori 1-3 per mm, tubi concolorous, contextus cremeus, system hypharum pseudo-dimiticum, hyphae generatoria fibulatae, 2.5-4.5 µm latae, interdum tunicis ad 1.5 µm crassis, cystidia nulla, basidia clavatae 13-23 x 3.7-5.8 µm, 4 sterigmatibus, basidiosporae allantoideae vel cylindricae, hyalinae, tenuitunicatae, 5.5-8(-9) x 2-3 µm. Cariem album in ligno producit.

ETYMOLOGY: cunninghamii, in honour of Gordon Herriot Cunningham (1892-1962), foremost New Zealand basidiomycete mycologist.
NOTES: The pale-coloured, effused-reflexed to pileate basidiocarps, wide pores, margin bruising reddish brown, and spicy odour, in conjunction with the pseudo-dimitic hyphal system and rather large allantoid spores, serve to separate this species from others in Diplomitoporus. While most species in this genus have a regularly dimitic hyphal system, the pseudo-dimitic D. cunninghamii is placed here in preference to the white rot, monomitic genus Ceriporiopsis Domariski. The latter contains species with resupinate basidiocarps composed of thin-walled generative hyphae. Apart from rare clamps on the thick-walled to solid skeletal-like hyphae of D. cunninghamii, these hyphae appear very similar to those of Diplomitoporus species. Variation in the hyphal system within the genus is already apparent in D. overholtsii (Pilat) Gilb. & Ryvarden with branched ends of skeletal hyphae resembling binding hyphae (Gilbertson & Ryvarden 1986). Further more, allantoid spores of D. cunninghamii are common to several members of Diplomitoporus
Cunningham (1965) treated this species incorrectly as Tyromyces mollis (Pers.: Fr.) Kotl. & Pouzar (= Leptoporus mollis (Pers.: Fr.) Quel., a species differing in having simple septate hyphae, smaller pores and spores, and causing a brown rot (Ryvarden & Gilbertson 1993). Old herbarium specimens of D. cunninghamii have resin-soaked, conspicuously darker tubes than those of recent collections. The colour contrast of tubes and context in these old specimens is a feature common with L. mollis. Cunningham provided a good description, although we observed spores to be somewhat larger than he reported (cf. 4-6 x 1.5-2 µm), and we did not observe "freely branched ...binding hyphae"; presumably the latter are the hyphae which we interpret as sclerified generative hyphae.

HOLOTYPUS: New Zealand, Northland, Poor Knights I., Aorangi, Oneho Hill, on dead wood of Leptospermum scoparium, R. E. Beever 381, 29 Aug 1984, PDD 62085.