SPECIMENS EXAMINED: (all on seed of Rhopalostylis sapida Wendl. & Drude): NORTHLAND: Bay of Islands County, Puketi State Forest, picnic area along Waipapa River, Samuels (82-120) & Johnston, 16 Apr. 1982 (PDD 44333). AUCKLAND: Waitemata City, Waitakere Ranges, Cascades, Samuels (81-349) et al., 14 Aug. 1981 (PDD 45691); Waitakere Ranges, Titirangi Beach Reserve, Samuels (82-13) & Hennebert, 27 Feb. 1982 (PDD 44267).

Stromata solitary or gregarious, 2.5-4.5 cm long, unbranched with apex attenuated and acute or enlarged and palmate. Fertile portion subapical, cylindrical, 1-2 cm long x 2.0-2.5 mm diam.; stipe sharply delimited from the fertile portion, 1-2 cm long x 1.0-1.5 mm diam., with a velutinous coat of short, reddish hyphae. Stromal surface with brown tissue cracking longitudinally, slightly tuberculate from perithecia) elevations; perithecia almost completely immersed, 300-400 µm diam., ostioles difficult to see. Internal tissue of stroma white, solid. Asci 130-140 µm total length x 5-6(-7) µm, sporiferous part (65-)74-87 (-90) µm, cylindrical; 8-spored, apical ring cylindrical, J+, 2 µm high x 2-3 µm wide; ascospores uniseriate with overlapping ends. Ascospores (8-)10-13(-16) x (4.5-)5.0-6.0(6.5) µm, inequilateral with one side straight and the other curved; in top view elliptical to naviculate with one end attenuated; transparent brown; slit full length or nearly so, parallel to the long axis of the ascospore.
CHARACTERISTICS IN CULTURE: Colonies grown two weeks at 20°C in diffuse daylight on OA 4.5 cm diam.; mycelium flat, white but with a blue-green ring around the centre, incipient stromata sometimes forming in the centre of the colony; with a rose-coloured pigment spreading into the medium; surface of colony eventually becoming dark olivaceous and velvety; stromata forming within one month, erect, 2-3 cm long x 2 mm diam. at base, branched, clothed in green hyphae; tip acute, white, conidiogenous. Conidiophores arising from aerial hyphae along upper half of the stroma, loosely dispersed and not forming a distinct palisade, unbranched, 25-55 µm long x 2-3 µm wide at base, straight, smooth, hyaline; producing a small number of conidia at the tip, a minute denticle remaining after conidial dehiscence. Conidia (4.0-)4.5-6.5(-8.0) x 2.0-2.5(-3.0) µm, ellipsoidal, with a protuberant, flattened, weakly refractive basal abscission scar.

DISTRIBUTION: NORTH ISLAND: Northland, Auckland.

HABITAT: Monocotyledonous trees.

NOTES: Our concept of X. palmicolais that of Dennis (1956). The fungus described here differs from his description in its somewhat smaller ascospores.