Holotype (K): 'Dun Mt. Track, Nelson, N.Z.; leg. Stevenson 509, 25.1V.1949'. - Herb. HK. ZT 68/290: 'Kowai River, Mt. Grey, prov. Canterbury, N.Z; leg. Horak, 21.IV.1968'. - Herb. HK. ZT 68/378: 'St. Arnaud Range, Lake Rotoiti, prov. Nelson, N.Z.; leg. Horak, 5.V.1968'. - Herb. HK. ZT 69/140: 'Track from Xmas Village to Mt. Anglem, Stewart Island, N.Z.; leg. Horak, 15.III.1969'. - Herb. HK. ZT 69/174 (PDD 27020): 'Track to Mt. Luxmore, Lake Te Anau, Fjordland N.P., N.Z; leg. Horak, 26.III.1969'.

Pileus 15-55 mm diam., conical later becoming distinctly umbonate, gibbous or campanulate, in aged carpophores margin also upturned, dark brown or soot-brown but always showing a more or less blue tinge, dry, covered by radially arranged wrinkles or veins, neither striate nor hygrophanous. Lamellae (L 16-22, l 3(-7), adnexed to subfree, grey-bluish becoming pink, gill edge straight or subserrate, concolorous. Stipe 40-100 x 3-10 mm, fusoid, bulbous-rooting or clavate, apically deep blue fading towards the whitish or ochraceous base, strongly fibrillose, dry, hollow, fragile, often twisted. Context blue in pileus and upper parts of stipe, whitish or yellowish at the base. Taste and odor strongly acidulous.
Spores 7-9 x 6.5-8 µm, subglobose, with 5-7 blunt angles. Basidia 30-35 x 10 µm, 4-spored. Cheilo- and pleurocystidia none. Cuticle a trichoderm observed on not weathered specimens, or a cutis with suberect to cylindrical hyphae (5-12 µm diam.), terminal cells fusoid, membrane thin-walled, not gelatinized, with blue-brownish, plasmatic pigment. Clamp connections present.

On soil among litter in forests (mainly under Nothofagus spp., rarely under Leptospermum spp., Dacrydium or Podocarpus spp.). New Zealand.

Stevenson 1962: l.c.

This species is quite common in the forests of New Zealand and its altitudinal range is from the coast to the timber line.
As Stevenson (1962: l.c.) already indicates E. haastii is closely related to the European E. nitidum Quelet and E. madidum (Fr.) and resembles also another undescribed species from the Patagonian forests in South America. A thorough study of all members of this group is necessary to define these different taxa clearly.

[Notes from Kew Type specimen, PRJ 2010] Kew images.

Pileus 3.5 cm. diam., sooty blue, broadly conical, moist, finely wrinkled; flesh thin, grey. Gills adnexed, moderately distant, greyish sky blue becoming stained pink. Stipe 4.5-6 x 0.3-1 cm., dark blue above, white below, with yellow tinge near bulbous base, silky-striate, hollow. Spores angled, subspherical, 8 x 10um; print pink; no cystidia.

rooting in litter, Dun Mt., Nelson, 25.4.1949, Stevenson.

Pileus 3.5 cm. diam., atrolazulinus, late conicus, humidus, subtiliter rugulosus ; caro tenuis, grisea. Lamellae adnexae, subdistantes, griseo- caeruleae, dein roseo-tinctae. Stipes 4.5-6 x 0.3-1 cm., sursum lazulinus, deorsum albidus, sericeo-striatus, basin bulbosam versus luteo-tinctus, cavus. Sporae 8 x 10um, angulatae, subglobosae, in cumulo roseae. Cystidia nulla.

This fungus is fairly close to R. nitidus Quel. as described by Lange, but it is smaller with a less attenuated stipe, and has substantially larger spores.

Stevenson 509