CONIFERAE. Agathis australis: Auckland, Cascade Kauri Park, Waitakere Ranges, 250 m. CORIARIACEAE. Coriaria arborea: Auckland, Rangitoto Island. CUNONIACEAE. Weinmannia racemosa: Westland, Lake Little, 30 m. ELAEOCARPACEAE. Aristotelia serrata: Auckland, Waitakere Ranges, 300 m. FAGACEAE. Nothofagus cliffortioides: Wellington. Kaimanawa Ranges, 900 m. Nothofagus cunninghamii: Victoria, Tarra Valley. LILIACEAE. Cordyline sp.: Auckland, south-west King Island. MALVACEAE. Hoheria lyallii: Westland, Alecs Knob, Waiho, 700 m. MIMOSACEAE. Acacia sp.: South Australia, Beaumont, Adelaide. MYRSINACEAE. Myrsine salicina: Auckland, Ruatewhenua, Waitakere Ranges, 300 m. MYRTACEAE. Leptospermum scoparium: Auckland, Swanson, 100 m. UNKNOWN. HOST. Western Australia, Pemberton.

Hymenophore perennial, stratose, membranous, adherent, effused forming irregular areas to 15 x 5 cm, with numerous orbicular outlying islands; hymenial surface cream, alutaceous, or pallid ochre, even, not creviced; margin at first thinning out, when concolorous, adherent, in old specimens becoming cliff like or receding and tobacco-brown. Context ferruginous when old, 0.1-1.5 mm thick, composed of 1-9 obscure layers, basal layer narrow, of parallel cemented hyphae, intermediate layer of scanty erect hyphae, compound dichophyses and embedded crystals and spores; generative hyphae 2.5-3 µm diameter, walls 0.2 µm thick, naked, with clamp connections. Gloeocystidia abundant in the hymenial layer, scattered and soon collapsed in the context, subclavate or fusiform, some projecting slightly, 32-85 x 6-8 µm. Dichophyses with stems arising from the base and traversing the context, producing at intervals lateral branches bearing dendriform branchlets with acute apices, some walls tinted near the base. Hymenial layer to 40 µm deep, a scanty palisade of basidia; paraphyses, gloeocystidia, and dichophyses: Basidia cylindrical, 22-32 x 5-6 µm, bearing 4 spores; sterigmata arcuate, delicate, 6-8 µm long. Paraphyses subclavate, scanty, 12-22 x 4-5 µm. Spores globose or subglobose, 6-8.5 µm, walls delicately and closely warted, hyaline, 0.5-1 µm thick.

DISTRIBUTION: Australia, Japan, New Zealand.

HABITAT: Effused on bark and decorticated wood of dead branches.

Spores are scattered freely both on the hymenial surface and among context hyphae. Walls of those on the surface are hyaline and contents are orange, whereas some in the lower layers of the context may be tinted. In size and numbers verrucae differ appreciably, in the collection from Leptospermum scoparium being scarcely visible under a magnification of x 600, whereas in specimens from Cordyline verrucae are about 0.5 µm long. Each compound dichophysis consists of a central stem which, arising from the base, traverses the context to the surface of the hymenium. At intervals lateral branches are produced, sometimes in whorls, bearing dendriform branches similar to the dichophyses of preceding species. In some collections walls of basal portions of the dichophyses are pallid yellow, the remainder being hyaline; in others they are hyaline throughout. All stain deeply with aniline blue. Collections match the type of 'Asterostromella' rhodospora in Kew herbarium, ex "Queensland, Nambour, Blackball Range". The species shows a general resemblance to Vararia pallescens (Schw.) R. & J. and V. peniophoroides (Burt) R. & J. From the former it may be separated by the different dichophyses and larger spores with coarser verrucae; from the latter by the different gloeocystidia and dichophyses, although spores are similar. Asterostroma epigaeum Lloyd from Japan was found to be of the same species.

TYPE LOCALITY: Blackball Range, Queensland.