Holotype (PDD 27098); Isotype (Herb. HK. ZT 68/230): 'S of Lake Hochstetter, Prov. Westcoast, N.Z.; leg. Horak, 29.III.1968'. - Herb. HK. ZT 69/329: 'Track to Mt. Luxmore,. Lake Te Anau, Fjordland, N.Z.; leg. Horak, 9.IV.1969'.

Pileus 15-45 mm broad, convex with inrolled margin when young becoming broadly umbonate to campanulate then umbonate-expanded, dark brown to liver brown, opaque, fading to ochraceous-brown or red-brown, dry, radially fibrillose to subsquamulose in age, estriate. Lamellae adnexed to free, crowded, lilac or greyish-lilac when young turning coffee brown then rust brown, gill edge concolorous or paler, eroded. Stipe 50-100 x 3-6 mm, fusoid (up to 12 mm diam.) or abruptly attenuated towards the base, with conspicuous pseudorhiza like a rat tail, dry, glabrous or longitudinally fibrillose, ape lilac, towards the base orange-brown, tough, hollow, single. Context deep lilac in upper portions of the stipe, brown in pileus, orange at the base of the stipe. Taste and odor very unpleasant, like burnt hairs. Chemical reactions on pileus: KOH - negative.
Spores 5-6 x 3.5-4 µm, ovoid, mucro absent, verruculose, ferruginous. Basidia 20-24 x 5-6 µm, 4-spored. Cheilocystidia 17-25 x 4-6 µm, subfusoid, with distinct capitate apex (-2 µm diam.), hyaline, membrane thin-walled, scattered at gill edge. Pleurocystidia lacking. Cuticle a cutis consisting of repent, cylindric, not gelatinized hyphae (2-6 µm diam.), encrusted with brown pigment. Clamp connections absent.

Amongst mosses in Nothofagus forests (N. menziesii, N. cliffortioides) intermixed with Dacrydium cupressinum, Libocedrus bidwillii, etc. New Zealand.

Pileo 15-45 mm lato, e convexo umbonato-expanso, brunneo, pallescente, sicco, radialiter fibrilloso vel subsquamuloso. Lamellis adnexis vel subliberis, lilaceis maturitate ferrugineis. Stipite 50-100 x 3-6 mm, fusoideo, radicato, sursum lilaceo, basim versus ochraceo-aurantiaco, sicco, cavo. Odore ingrato. Caro lilacea apicem stiptitis versus. Sporis 8-6 x 3.5-4 µm, ovatis, verrucosis, ferrugineis. Cystidiis 17-24 x 4-6 µm, fusoideis, capitatis. Epicute ex hyphis cylindraceis repentibusque cutem formantibus. Septis defibulatis. Ad terram in silvis nothofagineis. Novazelandia.

This fungus is characterized by its lilac gills (see young carpophores), deep lilac context at the upper portions of the stipe, ovoid spores, fusoid-capitate cheilocystidia and its remarkable odor (like burnt hair). As far as we know there is only one other closely related species known (Ph. rancida Hk. ined.) but the shape of pileus and stipe, the odor and the shape of the cheilocystidia can be used to separate clearly the two taxa.
Lilac coloured lamellae also occur in Ph. fallax Smith  and Ph. lilacifolia Smith. However, both North American taxa are distinguished from Ph. ratticauda Hk. by their sublimoniform spores and the glutinous cuticle of the pileus.
From the microscopic point of view the N.Z. fungus could be taken as Ph. radicata (Murrill) Singer or Ph. rancida Hk. ined. but all other characters of these fungi are different.

Holotypus (PDD 27098): 'Lake Hochstetter, N.Z.; leg. Horak, 29.III.1968'.