CONIFERAE. Dacrydium cupressinum: Auckland, Upper Piha Valley, 300 m. Pinus austriaca: Wellington, Lake Papaitonga, 20 m. Pinus radiata: Auckland, Putaruru, 450 m; Atiamuri, 450 m; Oratia, 20 m. South Australia, Adelaide. Pseudotsuga taxifolia: Auckland, Pinedale, 450 m. UNKNOWN HOSTS. New South Wales, Sydney, Kurrajong Mountains, Neutral Bay, Sydney.

Hymenophore annual, coriaceous, solitary, caespitose, or imbricate. Pilei effused-reflexed with broad resupinate bases, or almost resupinate with reflexed margins, loosely attached, 5-10 mm radius, 5-30 mm wide, or when laterally connate to 10 x 2.5 cm; pileus surface straw colour or bay, radiately zoned with darker bands, sulcate and striate, covered with appressed tomentum, somewhat strigose near the base; hymenial surface at first even, wood colour or ochre, becoming ferruginous, pallid umber or sometimes plum when old, finally deeply radiately, sometimes.areolately creviced. Context white, then isabelline, to 0.5 mm thick, of radiately arranged parallel hyphae with a coloured cortex beneath the abhymenial hairs and sometimes also coloured beneath the hymenium; generative hyphae 4-6 µm diameter, walls 0.5-1 µm thick, without clamp connections. Conducting hyphae arising in the context and extending through the hymenial layer, scarcely projecting, 80-200 x 4-6 µm, walls 0.5 µm thick, contents granular and discoloured. Hymenial layer to 90 µm deep, a dense palisade of basidia, paraphyses, and conducting hyphae. Basidia subclavate , 25-32 x 4-5.5 µm, bearing 2 spores; sterigmata slender, erect to 6 µm long. Paraphyses subclavate, 18-26 x 4-4.5 µm. Spores cylindrical or allantoid, with rounded ends, 6-8 x 2.5-3 µm, walls smooth, hyaline, 0.2 µm thick.

DISTRIBUTION: Europe, Great. Britain, North America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand.

HABITAT: Bark of dead branches and trunks of conifers.

Pilei are mostly effused-reflexed with broad resupinate bases, and sometimes arise from borer holes in the substratum. Conspicuous conducting hyphae are present in the context and hymenial layer. They exude a reddish fluid when the surface of living specimens is cut or bruised. Spores are narrowly cylindrical with rounded ends, or as often allantoid. In the collection from Dacrydium cupressinum they are somewhat larger (to 10 x 4 µm), than those from other hosts listed, but agree with authentic European specimens in other particulars. The species was made the type of Haematostereum Pouzar (1959, p. 13).

TYPE LOCALITY: North Carolina, U.S.A.

Stereum sangnguinolentum is present in Pinus plantations throughout the North Island of New Zealand. It may cause heart rot of conifers. At present it is only of minor importance.

Type: Caulicolous Fungi; Description: Basidiomata annual, resupinate with reflexed margins to semipileate. Pilei effused-reflexed with broad resupinate bases, loosely attached, 10–20 mm in diameter. Pileus surface hirsute-tomentose, undulating, straw coloured, radially zoned with darker bands, margin whitish. Pore surface smooth to tuberculate, wrinkled, yellow brown to ochre, often with a violet tinge, turning blood-red when injured, margin lighter. Context reddish yellow, up to 500 μm thick. Hyphal system dimitic. Cystidia none. Basidiospores elliptic-cylindrical, 6–8 × 2–3 μm, amyloid.

Distribution: Auckland, Coromandel, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taupo, Wellington, Nelson.; 1st Record: Birch (1937).

Significance: Although usually a saprobe on dead wood, this fungus has been occasionally recorded as a parasite infecting pruning wounds and causing a sap rot in Pinus spp., including P. radiata (Gilmour 1966a).; Host(s): Agathis australis, Dacrydium cupressinum, Dracophyllum sp., Larix decidua, Nothofagus menziesii, Pinus nigra subsp. laricio, P. radiata, P. taeda, Pseudotsuga menziesii.