Type: Mycorrhizal Fungi; Description: Basidiomata pileate. Pileus pale red, reddish brown or brownish pink, 15–60 mm in diameter, hygrophanous, minutely squamulose, convex to plano-convex, umbilicate, sometimes centrally depressed, margin striate and sometimes wavy; flesh thin, pinkish red. Gills adnate, distant, concolorous with the pileus, dusted white with basidiospores when mature. Stipe more or less cylindrical, slender, straight or flexuous, concolorous with the pileus or paler, striate, 50–90 mm long. Basidiospores globose, 0-septate, 8–10 μm in diameter, verruculose, hyaline, non-amyloid; spore print white.

Distribution: Northland, Auckland, Coromandel, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taupo, Wanganui, Wellington, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, Nelson, Buller, Westland, North Canterbury, Mid Canterbury, Dunedin, Southland.; 1st Record: Rawlings (1951).

Notes: The correct name for this very common fungus is in some doubt. It was first recorded in New Zealand by Colenso (1893) as Agaricus (Clitocybe) laccatus. This name was based on a specimen collected near Dannevirke and sent to Cooke for identification. Massee (1899) later included it in his account of the fungus flora of New Zealand as Laccaria laccata. The specimen on which these records were based is no longer extant. Stevenson (1964) noted that L. laccata was the commonest toadstool in the country. McNabb (1972) failed to find L. laccata during the course of his study of Laccaria and remarked that all Stevenson’s collections examined by him could be referred to either L. proxima or L. tetraspora. The description that follows is of the variable species usually referred to as Laccaria laccata, which is very common in nurseries and plantations of Pinus radiata.

Significance: A very common and variable fungus with fruiting bodies occurring in troops in nurseries and plantations. Isolated from and experimentally shown to be a mycorrhizal partner of Pinus radiata (Chu-Chou 1979), Pseudotsuga menziesii (Chu-Chou & Grace 1981c) and Eucalyptus delegatensis (Chu-Chou & Grace 1982). In a comparative study it was found that seedlings inoculated with L. laccata grew better than seedlings inoculated with Rhizopogon rubescens during the first six months. The increased growth rate was not maintained and the R. rubescens-inoculated seedlings were larger by the end of the growing season (Chu-Chou & Grace 1985).; Host(s): Betula pendula, Eucalyptus delegatensis, Pinus nigra subsp. laricio, P. radiata, Pseudotsuga menziesii.