ARALIACEAE. Neopanax arboreum: Wellington, Mt. Tongariro, 800 m. Pseudopanax crassifolium: Auckland, Whakarewarewa, 600 m. Taranaki, Mt. Egmont, 800 m. CUNONIACEAE. Weinmannia racemosa: Auckland, Waitakei Saddle, Hauhangaroa Range, 950 m. Westland, Pukekura, 120 m. ELAEOCARPACEAE. Aristotelia serrata: Westland, Douglas Rock Track, Copland Valley, 950 m. FAGACEAE. Nothofagus fusca: Nelson, Marble Mountain, Maruia, 900 m. LAURACEAE. Beilschmiedia tawa: Wellington, Totara Reserve, Pohangina Valley, 80 m. MIMOSACEAE. Albizzia lophantha: Auckland, Campbells Bay, 55 m. MYRTACEAE. Eucalyptus fasciculata: South Australia, Encounter Bay. Eucalyptus regnans: Victoria, Sherbrooke Forest, Dandenong Ranges. Leptospermum ericoides: Wellington, Kaimanawa Ranges, 950m. RUBIACEAE. Coprosma robusta: Auckland, Purewa Bush, 20m. VIOLACEAE. Melicytus ramiflorus: Otago, Alton Valley, Tuatapere. UNKNOWN HOSTS. Auckland, Rangitoto Island; Woods Bay, Titirangi. Victoria, Sherbrooke Forest, Dandenong Ranges. South Australia, Ashbourne; Hanbury; National Park; Humbug Scrub. Tasmania, Cascades, Hobart.

IN KEW HERBARIUM: Only one collection from the region, ex "Vic., No. 1029", filed under Poria violacea.

Hymenophore annual, adherent, ceraceous, effused forming linear areas 6-25 x 3-6 cm, 1-1.5 mm thick, with several outlying islands. Hymenial surface white when fresh, then orange or flesh pink, drying rosy pink or vinaceous, sometimes creviced when old; margin thinning out, to 3 mm wide, white then orange or vinaceous, fibrillose, irregular, sometimes wanting in old specimens. Pores not in strata, round or angular, 5-7 per mm, 75-150 µm diameter, to 1 mm deep; dissepiments 50-150 µm thick, equal, even, tomentose in young specimens. Context yellow or reddish, to 250 µm thick, of densely intertwined hyphae embedded in reddish-orange mucilage and embedding crystals; generative hyphae 3-6 µm diameter, walls 0.2 µm thick, branched, septate, without clamp connections. Hymenial layer to 20 µm deep, a loose palisade of basidia and paraphyses embedded in mucilage. Basidia subclavate, 6-12 x 3-4 µm, bearing 4 spores; sterigmata erect, to 3 µm long. Paraphyses subclavate, 6-10 x 3-3.5 µm. Spores allantoid, 4-5 x 1-1.5 µm, walls smooth, hyaline, 0.1 µm thick.

DISTRIBUTION: North America, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand.

HABITAT: Bark and decorticated fallen branches and trunks, associated with a white rot.

Collections agree with part of the type examined in Kew herbarium. The allantoid spores, monomitic hyphal system, generative hyphae of large diameter and without clamp connections, and bright colours of the hymenial surface are diagnostic features. Hyphae of the context are encrusted with granules of coloured mucilage from which the plant derives its colour.
In young stages plants of P. spissa may be confused with Merulius ravenelii; but the latter differs in the pores, fertile apices of dissepiments, different basidia, and presence of cylindrical projecting paraphysate hyphae. Poria taxicola (Pers.) Bres. is also so similar to P. spissa that separation can be made only by its slightly larger pores and different host range.

TYPE LOCALITY: North Carolina.