Fruit bodies up to 55 x 30 mm, arbuscular, erect to ascending. Stipe up to 8 x 3 mm, abruptly rounded and naked at base, pallid but not white, fibrous-fleshy in consistency. Major branches 2-3, ascending, terete. Branches ascending, tan to ochraceous tan ("warm buff", "cream-buff") early, quickly darkening with spores to light brown or yellowish light brown ("buckthorn-brown", "sayal-brown", "tawny-olive"), axils narrowly rounded; internodes diminishing gradually; hymenium amphigenous, at least over upper branches. Apices digitate, rounded to mitten-shaped, off-white, slowly concolourous with branches. All parts changing colour on bruising or cutting to dark brown ("walnut-brown") then to black-brown. Odour negligible; taste weakly bitter.

Macrochemical reaction: FCL = black.

Tramal hyphae of branches hyaline, clamped, adherent, parallel. Basidia 60-80 x 8-10 gm, clavate, hyaline, clamped, persistent after spore discharge; sterigmata 4.
Spores (Fig. 96) 9.7-11.5 (13.7) x 5.4 - 6.1 gm (E =1.71 - 2.00; L^' = 1.85; L'° = 10.92 gm), ellipsoid, somewhat flattened adaxially, or vaguely broadly comma-shaped; wall up to 0.6 um thick; contents with a single guttule of moderate size; hilar appendix gradual; ornamentation of discrete, densely distributed, rounded, conical spines up to 2.5 gm long.

The taxon is represented by three collections, none altogether satisfactory. The type, represented by two small fruit bodies, was chosen because it comes with accurate notes on colour and macrochemical reactions, and a photograph. The others, with several fruit bodies in good condition, are accompanied by few notes. Comparisons with other similar taxa can be summarised as follows: (i) From other taxa found in New Zealand: (a) spores are spiny (not like those of Ramaria pancaribbea var. zealandica); (b) apices are whitish (not rusty orange as in R. fragillima). (ii) From the typical form of R. gigantea, it differs in slenderer spores, which therefore show a higher E'° value.

As shown previously (Petersen 1981), although several names have been synonymised to yield my concept of Ramaria gigantea, none have come with thorough descriptions which permit accurate comparison. For example: The colour of young apices remains undescribed, and one must infer that they are pallid or off-white rather than orange, red, blue-green, or yellow as in some other taxa of the group. As to stature, the New Zealand material could be substituted for my illustration of the type of R. gigantea (Petersen 1981; fig. 14), but at a smaller scale.

I can either describe the specimens below as a new species, largely because Ramaria gigantea still lacks valuable information in its circumscription, or as a new form under this epithet. I have chosen the latter action.