Fruit bodies up to 5 cm high, up to 3 cm broad, repeatedly branched, arbuscular, arising from a tangle of pure white, slender, fragile rhizomorphic strands. Stipe up to 15 x 2.5 mm, pure white below, and remaining soon drying, hardly terete, often channelled or grooved, upward concolourous with branches. Branches di- to dichotomous throughout, in 3-6 ranks, slender (not more than 1 mm thick), flattened to terete (above), dull tan to ochraceous beige ("warm buff", "chamois", "honey-yellow", "antimony-yellow", "ochraceous buff", "cinnamon-buff", "clay-color"); axils lunate; internodes diminishing gradually; hymenium clearly unilateral, somewhat darker than sterile areas ("olive brown", "chamois").

Apices often elongate, extremely fine, acute, paler and often yellower than branches ("light ochraceous buff", "cartridge-buff", "maize-yellow"). Stipe and branches becoming greyish olive ("deep olive",, "deep greyish olive") on drying; base and rhizomorphs remaining white. Stipe and lower branches weakly vinaceous when bruised. Taste bitter; odour none.

Sections of branches in 2°%o KOH leaching yellow-brown pigment.
Macrochemical reactions: KOH, NOH = momentarily leaching coral, then brown; ANO = positive; FCL = green-black; GUA, PYR, PHN = ambiguous. Tramal hyphae of branches 4-7 p m diam., parallel, hyaline, clamped, free to slightly adherent, slightly thick-walled (wall up to 0.5 gm thick). Basidia about 30 x 5-6 Rm, clavate, clamped, yellowish in mass; sterigmata 4, straight, spindly. Spores (Fig. 97) 5-6.1 x 3-3.6 Rm (E =1.55-1.88; E'° _ 1.64; L'" = 5.49 gm), ellipsoid, flattened adaxially, roughened; contents obscurely refringent under phase contrast; wall thin to 0.2 gm thick; hilar appendix eccentric, more or less papillate; ornamentation of short (up to 1.2 gm long) spines scattered over all spore surface.

Ut in R. ochracea, sed receptacula sicca pallide cinereo-olivacea; ubi contusa pallide vinacea; sporis L^' = 5.5 pm.

This species has been discussed elsewhere (Petersen 1981). Specimens have been seen from Africa (type locality) and South America, and New Zealand complements this range. Small-spored members of sub g. Echinoramaria are difficult to identify or distinguish from one another. I have no notes that Ramaria ochracea fruit bodies dry with an olive colouration, so I propose a new variety. All the small-spored taxa form very similar fruit bodies, and the colour change on drying may well be the clue to an unreported species rather than a variety, but I am currently unable to solve this problem. Once cut, branch sections quickly turn dark brown to black, making it very difficult to analyse macro-chemical reactions. Reactions in PYR, ANO, and GUA were read as positive in TENN no. 43438, for instance, but were questionable in no. 43437. Tests with PHN were negative in no. 43438, ambiguous in no. 43437. Likewise, the leaching reaction in 2°%o KOH (fresh or dried material can be used) is subjective.

Material of Ramaria ochracea var. sicco-olivacea leaches rosy-coral in dilute KOH only momentarily, quickly turning yellow to ochre, whereas material of R. perfluo-punicea continues to leach pink or coral for some seconds (perhaps 20) before undergoing the same change. Nonetheless, colour of dried fruit bodies and spore statistics are better standards by which to separate taxa. TENN no. 43384, although identical micromorphologically (including spores), produced much slenderer, more densely branched fruit bodies which dried to a greyish olivaceous. Unfortunately, when collected, it was taken for R. perfluo punicea, and no notes were made on fresh colour or macrochemical reactions. In the dried condition, the specimen appears like those of R. mutabilis Schild & Petersen, found in mountainous regions of the Northern Hemisphere, but spore dimensions and shape differ from those of R. mutabilis.