APOCYNACEAE. Nerium oleander: Auckland, Mt. Eden, 100 m. ARALIACEAE. Meryta sinclairii: Auckland, Mt. Eden, 100 m. Neopanax arboreum: Auckland, Mamaku Forest, 600 m; Mt. Te Aroha, 370 m; Rereatukahia Reserve, Katikati, 100 m. CAPRIFOLIACEAE. Viburnum japonicum: Auckland, Mt. Eden, 100 m. COMPOSITAE. Brachyglottis repanda: Auckland, Huia, 15 m; Waiomu Valley, Thames, 35 m; Lake Okataina, 500 m. Wellington, Upper Pohangina Valley, 300 m; Ballance Reserve, 35 m. Olearia rani: Mt. Te Aroha, 300 m. Olearia virgata: Hawke's Bay, Upper Mohaka River, 900 m. CONIFERAE. Libocedrus bidwillii: Auckland, Kaimanawa Ranges, 900 m. CORIARIACEAE. Coriaria arborea: Auckland, Te Araroa, 200 m. CUNONIACEAE. Weinmannia racemosa: Otago, Niagara, Catlins, 25 m. FILICALES. Cyathea dealbata: Auckland, Mt. Eden, 120 m: HIPPOCASTINACEAE. Aesculus hippocastaneum: Wellington, Lake Papaitonga, 20 m. JUGLANDACEAE. Juglans regia: Auckland, Mt. Albert, 50 m. LAURACEAE. Beilschmiedia tawa: Auckland, Taneatua Reserve, 20 m; Earthquake Flat, Rotorua, 500 m. Wellington, Totara Reserve, Pohangina Valley, 50 m. MIMOSACEAE. Albizzia lophantha: Auckland, Mt. Albert, 45 m. MYOPORACEAE. Myoporum laetum: Auckland, Purewa Bush, 30 m. MYRTACEAE. Eucalyptus spp.:Campbells Bay, 50 m. South Australia, Mt. Lofty. Leptospermum scoparium: Auckland, Rangitoto Island. Lophomyrtus bullata: Wellington, Upper Pohangina Valley, 300 m. OLEACEAE. Ligustrum vulgare: Auckland, Mt. Albert, 50 m. PIPERACEAE. Macropiper excelsum: Auckland, Huia, 20 m. Wellington, Kahuterawa River, 200 m. PITTOSPORACEAE. Pittosporum tenufolium: Auckland, Kauri Glen, Northcote; Campbells Bay, 100 m; Auckland Domain, 100 m; Te Kouma, Coromandel Peninsula, 250 m. PROTEACEAE. Knightia excelsa: Auckland, Rereatukahia Reserve, Katikati, 100 m. ROSACEAE. Pyrus malus: Auckland, Oratia, 20 m. Rubus fruticosus: Wellington, Totara Reserve, Pohangina Valley, 85 m. RUBIACEAE. Coprosma australis: Auckland, Te Moehau, Coromandel Peninsula, 300 m; Mt. Te Aroha, 500 m; Rereatukahia Reserve, Katikati, 170 m. Coprosma robusta: Auckland, Kohekohe, 100 m; Hadfields Beach, Orewa; Awhitu Peninsula, 100 m. SAPINDACEAE. Alectryon excelsus: Wellington, Upper Pohangina River, 300 m; Ballance Reserve, 35 m; Carters Reserve, Carterton, 50 m. SAXIFRAGACEAE. Carpodetus serratus: Auckland, Moumoukai Valley, Hunua Ranges, 300 m. SCROPHULARIACEAE. Hebe salicifolia: Auckland, University Grounds; Hicks Bay, 100 m. Wellington, Turakina Valley, 70 m. VERBENACEAE. Vitex lucens: Auckland, Huia, 30 m. VIOLACEAE. Melicytus ramiflorus: Auckland, Waiomu Valley, Thames, 100 m; Coromandel Peninsula, 250 m. VITACEAE. Vitis vinifera: Auckland, Mt. Eden, 100 m.

Hymenophore perennial, ceraceous, adherent, effused forming linear areas to 12 x 0.5-2 cm, with several outlying islands; hymenial surface bluish-grey, french-grey, or sometimes cinereous, darker when old, pruinose, at length finely areolately creviced; margin thinning out, concolorous, finely byssoid, adherent. Context ferruginous in section, 60-120 µm thick, basal layer of scanty, compact, parallel hyphae with walls coloured brown, intermediate layer of erect compact hyphae, brown basally, becoming lighter towards the hymenium; generative hyphae to 6 µm diameter, walls 1-1.5 µm thick, chestnut or fuscous, naked, with clamp connections. Metuloids of two types: (1) pyriform or obovate, crowded in the base of the intermediate layer and extending irregularly to the hymenial surface, to 32 x 20 µm, heavily encrusted, pedicels tinted brown; (2) cylindrical with rounded or acuminate apices, arising from the base of the intermediate layer and subhymenium, projecting slightly, encrusted or naked, walls 0.5-3 µm thick, hyaline in upper, brown in lower metuloids. Hymenial layer to 45 µm deep, a dense palisade of basidia, paraphyses, metuloids, and paraphysate hyphae. Basldia subclavate, 26-34 x 6-8 µm, bearing 4 spores; sterigmata arcuate, to 8 µm long. Paraphyses subclavate, 18-26 x 5-6 µm. Paraphysate hyphae arising in the intermediate layer and projecting above the basidia, hyaline, apically branched, encrusted with fine hyaline crystals. Spores suballantoid, less frequently cylindrical, usually apiculate, 9-12 x 4-4.5 µm, walls smooth, hyaline, 0.2 µm thick.

DISTRIBUTION: Europe, North America, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand.

HABITAT: Effused on bark or decorticated wood of dead fallen or attached twigs and small branches.

Peniophora lycii is abundant in New Zealand and shows a partiality for dead twigs attached to living plants. Its main specific feature is the presence in the hymenium of branched paraphysate hyphae which sometimes develop additionally in the context. They may be conspicuous and appear like miniature antlers, or delicate with one or two branches only, and are encrusted (Fig. 62) with fine refractive crystals which may extend to contiguous basidia, paraphyses, and projecting metuloids. Spores are larger than those of P. cinerea and P. nuda, consequently as they are always present, these two features enable the species to be identified readily.

TYPE LOCALITY: Europe.