Sessile or shortly stipitate, subglobose, ¼ to 1/3 of an inch in diameter, pileiform; cuticle minutely cracked, and rough with little points, not laccate; white and corky within. Perithecia elliptic. Ostiola large, prominent. Sporidia cymbiform, 1/1000 of an inch long.

suberosa, snbglobosa, pileiformis, stipite brevissimo l. obsoleto, ostiolis prominentibus, sporidus magnis.

Resembling X. piliaeformis. Berk. et Curt., but without its laccate coat, and having far larger ostiola and sporidia. Its nearer affinities are with X. anisopleuron, Mont., and X. polymorpha; at first sight it looks like a small Truffle.

On dead wood, near the River Manawatu, Colenso.

SPECIMENS EXAMINED: Location, substrate, and date unknown, Cleland 15 (PDD 39922). NORTHLAND: Hokianga County, Waipoua State Forest, on Beilschmiedia tarairi (A. Cunn.) Benth. et Hook. f. ex Kirk, Lancaster, Dec. 1951 (PDD 45427). AUCKLAND: Waitemata City, Waitakere Ranges, Cascade Kauri Park, on unknown host, Dingley, Dec. 1963 (PDD 23570). GISBORNE: Urewera National Park, vic. Lake Waikaremoana, on decorticated wood, Samuels (82-306) et al.., 4 Nov. 1982 (PDD 43807); vic. Lake Waikaremoana, Ngamoko Track, on indet. decorticated wood, Samuels (82-268) et al., 4 Nov. 1982 (PDD 44436); same collecting data, second collection Samuels (82-266, PDD 43186); Lake Waikaremoana, track from Aniwaniwa to Lake Waikareiti, on ?Nothofagus sp., Samuels (83-539) et al., 29 May 1983 (PDD 45368); same locality, Samuels (81-305), 24 May 1981 (PDD 41982). TAUPO: Mt. Hauhungatahi, on unknown host, Baker, 25 Jan. 1954 (PDD 45342). TARANAKI: Mt Egmont National Park, North Egmont, 2500 ft., on Weinmannia racemosa, Dingley, Mar. 1951 (PDD 45428); Mt Egmont National Park, Dawson Falls, 2300 ft., on Weinmannia racemosa, Dingley, 30 Jan. 1953 (PDD 45429); Mt Egmont National Park, track between Stratford and Dawson Falls, on indet. wood, Samuels (83-483) et al., 24 Apr. 1983 (PDD 45766); same collecting data, two additional collections, Samuels (83-482 PDD 45767), Samuels (83-485, PDD 45765); Mt Egmont National Park, vic. Stratford Mountain House, Potaema Track, Samuels (83-490) et al., 25 Apr. 1983 (PDD 45758). WELLINGTON: locality, host, and collector unknown, Cleland collection (PDD 39922); Weraroa, on dead wood, Cunningham, Sep. 1919 (PDD 104). DUNEDIN: Dunedin City (?), on dead wood, Moore 55, May 1938 (PDD 39918 ex Cleland collection); Dunedin, on dead wood, Dalrymple, Apr. 1933 (PDD 5144). SOUTHLAND: Longwood State Forest, vic. Otautau, Pourakino Walkway, along Pourakino River, on indet., dead tree, Samuels (85-11) et al., 20 Apr. 1985 (PDD 49004).

Stromata solitary to gregarious, subglobose to conical to subcylindrical, (2-)7-10(-40) mm high x (2-) 7-10 mm wide, sessile and centrally attached or on minute, 1.5-4 mm long x 1 mm diam. stipes. Surface of stroma brown, plane to wrinkled and cerebriform, cracking into polyhedral plates or not cracking; perithecia completely immersed, (400-) 600-800 µm diam., openings obscure, minute and conical to mammiform, sometimes appearing as small black discs against the brown of the stromal surface. Internal tissue white, solid. Asci 185-275 µm total length x (7-)8-9.0( 12) µm, the sporiferous part (125-)140-175(225) µm, cylindrical, 8-spored, ascospores uniseriate with overlapping ends; apical ring J+ cylindrical, 4-5(-6) µm high x (3-)4-5 µm wide. Ascospores (19.0-)22.0-25.5(-29.0) x (5.5-)7.5-9.0 (-10.0) µm, inequilateral with one side flat to concave and the other side round, elliptic in top view, one-celled or occasionally with an inconspicuous cellular appendage (primary appendage) on one end; ends sometimes µmched and papillate; transparent brown; slit (13-)15-17(-19) µm long, straight, parallel to the long axis of the ascospore. Abnormally broad ascospores up to I 1 µm wide often seen in old perithecia.
CHARACTERISTICS IN CULTURE: Colonies grown 2-3 weeks at 20°C in diffuse daylight on OA 6-7 cm diam., flat, white with no blackening in the colony; mycelium dense; stromata forming in abundance around periphery of colony and along lines of contact between colonies derived from single ascospores. Stromata 1-4 cm long x 2-3 mm dia.m., branched or unbranched, cylindrical, acute, lacking distinctive hairs, at first white to tan, becoming grey with conidia. Conidiophores forming a loose c. 50 µm deep palisade; branching, each branch 3-4 µm wide, terminating in a conidiogenous cell. Conidiogenous cells (7-)10-16(-20) x (3.0-)3.5-4.0 (-4.5) µm, straight, smooth, conidiogenous loci terminal; conidia leaving a refractive 1.0-1.5 µm diam. frill after dehiscence. Conidia (5.5-)6.5-8.0(-10.0) x 3.0-3.5 µm, clavate to ellipsoidal, colourless, smooth; each with a flat, refractive basal frill.

DISTRIBUTION: NORTH ISLAND: Northland, Auckland, Gisborne, Taupo, Taranaki, Wellington. SOUTH ISLAND: Dunedin, Southland.

HABITAT: Decorticated dicotyledonous wood.

Xylaria tuberiformis is among the most common Xylaria species in New Zealand. As Berkeley (in Hooker 1855) perceptively noted, this species has affinities with X. polymorpha and X. anisopleura. It has the general stature of X. anisopleura, but the surface usually lacks corky cracking and the germ slit is usually straight rather than oblique or undulate. Our concept of X. tuberiformis has been reinforced by examination of authentic material [New Zealand, Colenso no. 2098 (K)]. Although the species is generally uniform in morphology, we have one collection (PDD 49004, Fig. 5) with stromata that are more robust than usual. They are essentially conical, 1-2 cm high x 0.7-1.5 cm wide at the base and collapsed and split when dry. Features of the asci, ascospores, and cultures confirmed that this is merely a morphological variant of X. tuberiformis.