On the ground. Maungaroa (320)

Wellington: York Bay, 400ft, August 1922, E.H.Atkinson; same locality, 500ft. July 1923, E.J.Butler-G.H.C.; Mt. Ruapehu, 3,000ft, March 1955, B.J.Hooton. Nelson: Staircase Creek, Reefton, 2,000ft, November 1952, S.D.Baker; Murchison, 500ft, April 1956, P.J.Brook; Lake Rotoiti, 2,000ft, April 1956, S.D. & P.J.Brook. Westland: Ahaura, April 1955, J.Hardcastle. Otago: Homer Saddle, Hollyford Valley, January 1950, J.M.Dingley; Alton Valley, Tuatapere, 600ft, February 1954, J.M.Dingley; Black Gully, Tapanui, April 1957, S.D. and P.J.Brook.

Hymenophore annual, coriaceous, pileate. Pilei stipitate, flabelliform with excentric stems, or campanulate with central stems, usually aggregated into groups of 3-5 with free stems but fused margins, sometimes forming rosettes, less frequently solitary, 2-5 cm tall, 1-5 cm radius. Pileus surface black, glabrous, radiately sulcate; margin incurved, thin, lobed or complicate. Hymenial surface black, tinted olivaceous, with a broad sterile border. Stems 0.5-2 cm x 1-5 mm, concolorous, flattened or terete, solid, glabrous save towards the base where sometimes tomentose, arising from a common mycelial mass. Spines decurrent, 0.5-2 mm long, subulate, terete, crowded, black with an olivaceous tinge. Context 0.5-1.5 mm thick, black, shining, composed of parallel hyphae firmly compacted; generative hyphae 3.5-4.5 µ diameter, walls 0.2 µ thick, coloured with black pigment granules, sparsely branched, septate, without clamp connexions. Hymenial layer to 30µ deep, a dense palisade of basidia and paraphyses. Basidia subclavate, 18-22 x 5-6 µ, 2-4-spored; sterigmata erect, slender, to 4 µ long. Paraphyses subclavate, 16-20 x 5-6 µ. Spores globose, 4-5 µ diameter (with spines 5-6 µ), walls moderately verruculose (spines 0.5 µ long), hyaline, 0.1 µ thick.

DISTRIBUTION: New Zealand.

HABITAT: In humus on the floor of Nothofagus forests.

Plants commonly grow in crowded groups with stems free but margins fused to form rosettes, when pilei are flabelliform with excentric or lateral stems. Solitary pilei are usually campanulate with central stems. The entire plant is black when dry, colour being produced from black pigment granules embedded in walls of hyphae. Purple when they first emerge from the humus under beech trees, plants rapidly change to fuscous, then black. When fertile the hymenial surface assumes an olivaceous tinge, when sterile it also is black. Spores are globose with hyaline and finely verruculose walls, spines being about 0.5 µ long. Even after long keeping in the herbarium, plants possess a strong odour of aniseed. Collections match the type in Kew herbarium, which consists of five specimens in excellent condition, collected by Dr. Sinclair at Maungatua in 1860.

TYPE LOCALITY: Maungatua, New Zealand.

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