Beilschmiedia tawa (A. Cunn.) Hook. f. & Benth. Auckland: Lake Rotoehu, 1,300ft, June, 1951, J.M. Dingley. Brachyglottis repanda Forst. Auckland: White's Stream, Piha, January 1953, J.M. Dingley. Wellington: Turakina Valley, 200ft, January, 1954, G.H.C. Carpodetus serratus Forst. Auckland: Kauaeranga Valley, Thames, October, 1950, August, 1954, J.M. Dingley; Oratia, Waitakeres, 1,000ft, July, 1951 J.M. Dingley; Swanson. 300ft, April, 1954, J.M. Dingley; Whitianga Road, Coromandel Peninsula, 500ft, October, 1954, J.M. Dingley. Otago: Horse Shoe Bay, Stewart Island, February, 1954, J.M. Dingley; Bragg's Bay, Stewart Island, February, 1954, J.M. Dingley. Coprosma robusta Raoul. Auckland: Earthquake Flat, Rotorua, 1,500ft June, 1952, G.H.C.; Lake Okataina, 1,500ft, June, 1952, G.H.C.; Rangitoto Island, June, 1954, J.M. Dingley. Otago: Horse Shoe Bay, Stewart Island February, 1954, J.M. Dingley. Melicytus ramiflorus Forst. Auckland: Kauaeranga Valley, Thames, August 1954, S.D. Baker. Myoporum laetum Forst. Auckland: Piha, March, 1950, J.M. Dingley. Myrtus bullata Sol. Auckland: Lake Rotoehu, 1,200ft, September, 1954, G.H.C. Nothopanax anomalum (Hook.) Seem. Auckland: Waitakere Dam, October 1951, J.M. Dingley. Nothopanax arboreum (Forst. f.) Seem. Westland: Pukekura, November 1954, J.M Dingley. Pittosporum eugenioides A. Cunn. Auckland: Mt. Pihanga, 2,000ft, October 1949, J.M. Dingley, type collection, P.D.D. herbarium, No. 7363. Pittosporum tenuifolium Banks & Sol. Auckland: Hatepe, 650ft, March 1953, J.M. Dingley; Mountain Road, Henderson, 1,000ft, September, 1953, J.M. Dingley; Coromandel Peninsula, 1,600ft, August, 1954, J.M. Dingley. Pseudopanax crassifolium (Sol.) Koch. Auckland: Mt. Karioi, Raglan, March 1951, J.M. Dingley.

Hymenophore annual, occasionally biennial, membranous, adnate, effused forming irregularly linear areas 6-10 x 1-2 cm; surface cream, drying cream or pallid ochre, velutinate, even or slightly tuberculate, becoming deeply areolately creviced; margin thinning out, white, fibrillose, adnate. Context white, sometimes of two layers, 120-200 µ thick, basal layer thin, of parallel hyphae; intermediate layer well developed, of somewhat densely intertwined mainly upright hyphae embedding cystidia; generative hyphae 4-6 µ diameter, walls 0.5 µ thick, hyaline, naked, branched, septate, without clamp connexions. Hymenial layer to 50 µ deep, a close palisade of basidia, paraphyses and cystidia. Basidia subclavate, slightly projecting, 24-30 x 5-6 µ, 4-spored; sterigmata at first digitate, becoming slender, arcuate, to 8 µ long. Paraphyses subclavate, about half the size of the basidia. Cystidia arising in the base of the hymenial layer when projecting to 60 µ, and in the intermediate layer, cylindrical with rounded ends; often geniculated, distorted, or angled, occasionally strangulated or moniliform, coarsely crystal coated or the upper part naked, 40-90 x 6-10 µ, lumen with two or three septa. Spores elliptical, 7-9 x 3.5-4 µ, walls smooth; hyaline, 0.2 µ thick.

DISTRIBUTION. New Zealand.

HABITAT. Effused on bark of dead branches.

Hymenophorum annuum, membranaceum, adnatum, effusum; superficie cremea, aequa, alte areolatae rimosa. Hyphae contextus afibulatae, 4-6 µ diam., nudae. Basidia subclavata, 24-30 x 5-6 µ, 4 sporis. Cystidia cylindricalia, saepe tortuosa vel geniculata, septata, 40-90 x 6-10 µ, crystallis tecta vel apice nudo. Sporae ellipticae, 7-9 x 3.5-4 µ, laeves, hyalinae.

Features enabling the species to be identified are the long, narrow, often geniculated or distorted, septate cystidia, elliptical spores and absence of clamp connexions. Septate cystidia are unusual, this being the only species present in New Zealand possessing them, though several extralimital species have been described with such a feature, namely, P. aspera (Pers.) Sacc. (= P. setigera (Fr.) H. & L.), P. pallidula Bres. (which may be a form of Odontia arguta), P. byssoides (Pers. ex Fr.) Bres., and P. polonensis (Bres.) H. & L. All differ, among other features, in possessing clamp connexions.

Auckland: Mt. Pihanga, 2,000ft, October 1949, J.M. Dingley, type collection, P.D.D. herbarium, No. 7363.

Basidiome membranaceous, hymenium not easily separable. Subicular hyphae hyaline, thin- to thickwalled (up to 1 µm), 2.5-5.5 µm wide, without clamps. Cystidia hyaline, thin- to thick-walled (up to 1 µm), but thin-walled at the apex, cylindrical, flexuous, rarely with short branches (e.g., at the apex), 40-100 x 6-10.5 µm, with simple septa, encrusted with crystals over most of the length, but encrustation thin or absent at the apex. Basidia clavate 19-40 x 4-7 µm, occasionally repetitive, without clamps at the base. Spores hyaline, smooth, thin-walled, ellipsoid to cylindrical, 6.5-10 x 3-4.5 µm, not amyloid.

The species has been placed in Candelabrochaete because of its septate cystidia, the repetitive basidia and the simple-septate hyphae. It differs from the type species mainly by the denser texture (only young basidiomes have arachnoid parts, cf. PDD 12609), but fits in the genus in the broader sense of Burdsall (1984) and Hjortstam (1983).

Holotype: on Pittosporum eugenioides A. Cunn., New Zealand, Taupo, Mt Pihanga, coll. J.M. Dingley, Oct. 1949 (PDD 7363).