Nothofagus fusca (Hook.f.) Oerst.Wellington. York Bay, 500 feet, Nov. 1921, E.H.Atkinson; Same Locality, 300 feet, June 1927, E.H.Atkinson.

Hymenophore annual, compound, composed of numerous pilei (5-46) arising from a common central or lateral freely branched stem, compact, coriaceous, to 20 cm. broad. Pilei coriaceous, 2-5 cm. x 1-3 cm. x 1-4 mm., fan-shaped, cuneiform, or spathulate; surface bay brown or tobacco brown, radiately striate and irregularly nodose, cuticle absent, replaced by imbricate hyphae with inflated rounded ends; margin acuminate, fringed, often undulate; hymenial surface decurrent, dingy bay brown to tobacco brown, dissepiments toothed, and deeply lacerate in old specimens. Context to 1 mm. thick, bay brown when fresh, drying fuscous, dense and gelatinized, of radiately arranged densely compacted parallel hyphae; skeletal hyphae 5-8 µ thick, wall 2-3.5 µ, freely branched, aseptate, contents staining; generative hyphae 3-6 µ thick, wall 1 µ, sparsely branched, septate, with large somewhat sparse clamp connections; associated with numerous lactiferous ducts which are 6-8 µ thick, linear or slightly irregular, staining deeply. Pores decurrent, bay brown or fuscous in section, 0.2-1 mm. deep, variable in size and shape, angular, 1-3 mm. long, to 1 mm. broad; dissepiments 125-400 µ thick, of densely compacted woven hyphae, tapering to the apex where even. Basidial type clavate, basidia linear-oblong or subclavate, to 24 x 6 µ. Spores globose or less often subglobose, 4-5 µ diameter, smooth, hyaline, abundant.

Growing on rotting wood and humus between large roots of living trees.

A feature of the species aiding diagnosis is the large compound hymenophore, which consists of numerous fan-shaped or spathulate pilei attached by irregular, freely branched, lateral stems. Plants grow to a large size, a specimen from Mt. Lofty, South Australia, kindly communicated by J.B.Cleland, weighing 7 lb. when fresh and measuring 13 in. x 11 in. x 10 in. The only other species in New Zealand with a similar growth habit is P. berkeleyi, which may be recognised readily by the large globose echinulate spores.

LOCALITY: Tarawera, New Zealand.

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