Type specimens examined
Phaeosolenia platensis Speg. : Argentina: La Plata, on Manihot cartagenensis. Apr. 9, 1902. Coll. C. Spegazzini (LBS, 15915). Solenia villosa var. sub-ochracea Speg.: Argentina: Misiones, San Pedro, on Ilex paraguayensis. Feb. 1907. Coll. C. Spegazzini. (LBS 25877).
Solenia pircuniae Speg. : Argentina: Buenos Aires, San Jose de Flores, on Pircunia dioica, June 16. 1881. Coll. C. Spegazzini. (LPS 25874).
Cyphella endophila Ces.: Italy: In horte bot. Neapolitano. Coll. Cesati. In Rabenhorst, Fungi Europaei 1513 (NY, BD).
Cyphella versicolor Berk. & Br.: Ceylon: Central Province. No. 105, Nov. 1867. L.H.K.T. (K).
Solenia euphorbiaecola Pat.: Ecuador: Pululahua, on bark of Euphorbia sp. May 1892. Coll. Lagerheim. (FH).
Cyphella fraxinicola Berk. & Br.: England: C.E. Broome, on ash poles. Dec. 20, 1873. (K).
Cyphella pruinosa Berk. & Br.: Ceylon: Peradeniya. "81". (K). Cyphella tabacina Cke. & Phill. : Union of South Africa: Natal, Inanda. On bark. Coll. J. Medley Wood 524, Feb. 1881. (PRE 11146, K). Cyphella fulvo-disca Cke. & Mass.: Madagascar: Ft. Dauphin. Coll. Scott-Elliot. (NY).
Cyphella variolosa Kalchbr. "cotype" : Union of South Africa: Boschberg Mts., Somerset Strand, Cape Province. Coll. "in ligno" by MacOwan 1381. (PRE 20939, S.)
Cyphella holstii P. Henn., Latinda, Usumbara, Africa. July 1893. C. Holst. (S).
Specimens examined from: England (5), France (2), Italy (5), Germany (2), Africa (4), Madagascar (2), Southern Nigeria (1), Uganda (2), Union of South Africa (5), Ceylon (13), French Indo-China (1), Malaya (1), Philippine Islands (12), Bonin Island (1), Revillagigedo Islands (2), Argentina (6), Brazil (25), British Guiana (2), Colombia (1), Ecuador (5), Paraguay (4), Venezuela (2), British West Indies (1), Cuba (1), Ontario (1), Colorado (3), Delaware (1), Florida (3), Maine (2), Massachusetts (1), Pennsylvania (2), South Carolina (1). Italian material of P. endophila has been well described and illustrated by Mattirolo (1887).

Receptacles white to greyish with brownish to vinaceous undertones, 0,1-1,5 mm. long, cylindric, sessile to short-stipitate, cupshaped to urceolate or tubular, 0,1-0,7 mm. in diameter when dry, to 2 mm. in diameter when fresh, gregarious to scattered; with an evanescent, brown subiculum; context hyphae 1,5-3 µ in diameter, with clamp connections, producing two palisades both arising directly from the context hyphae ; surface hairs produced in one palisade, brown, stiff, branched below, straight above, perpendicular to the surface or pointed upward and incurved toward the cup margin, covering the hymenium when dry, incrusted with crystals up to 2 µ long by 1 µ in diameter, easily removed in mounting, revealing the thin- to thick-walled, non-septate, brown hairs 20-100-(250) x 3,5-7 µ, with pointed tips; hymenium produced as the internal palisade, composed only of tightly packed basidia; basidia (18)-23-40 x 4-(7,5)-9 µ 4-sterigmate, with clamps at the base; spores pale yellow brown to brown, smooth, apiculate, ovate to subglobose, ellipsoid or almond-shaped or lemon-shaped, flattened on one side (but not strongly so), (5)-8,5-10,5-(11) x (3)-4,5-5,5-(7,0) µ, or 3-6 µ in diameter.

Habitat: On dead materials of such plants as: Alangium bignoniaefolium, Arenya saccharifolia, Astonia scholaris, Chusquea sp., Discoxylum hexandrum, Euphorbia sp., Ficus sp., F. hawili, Erythrina tomentosa, Fraxinus sp., F. excelsior, Hibiscus sp., Ilex paraguayensis, Manihot utilissima, M. caragenensis, Paromynia, Pelargonium sp., Phytolacca dioica, Pircunia dioica, Populus angustifolia, P. deltoides, Robinia pseudacacia, Schefflera odorata, Schyzolobium sp., Tectona grandis, Theobroma cacao, Vitis sp.

It is possible that Cyphella microthele Speg. belongs in this complex. The type was collected in Argentina at Entre Rios in Jan. 1902 by C. Spegazzini. It was found on Chloris distichophylla. Spegazzini's notes indicate that the spores were smooth, fulvous, 5-6 x 5 µ, produced on basidia 15-18 x 6-7 µ with surface hairs hyaline to fulvous, incrusted, 50-150 x 5-6 µ. No material was found in the type packet loaned by Dr. Lindquist of (LPS) so that the exact position of this species must remain uncertain.
The combination Phaeocarpus hibisci Pat. appears on herbarium packets (FH) but has not been found in published form.
Cyphella variolosa Kalchbr. may be distinguished from P. densa by the ovate rather than almond-shaped spores which are slightly larger, and the surface hairs which form a rather regular palisade and which are granule-incrusted but whose granules are not present in such large quantities as in P. densa. Also clamps are present at the base of many of the surface hairs. However, these differences are rather superficial and non-critical so that specimens assigned to this species are now added to P. densa.

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