North Island: WKR, Yakas Tree Track, 24.vi.81, coll. RHP, no. 43695 (TENN); OSF, Loop Track, 8.v.83, coll. RHP, no. 43806 (TENN).

Fruit bodies up to 7 cm high, up to 4 mm thick, simple clubs, gregarious to fasciculate in groups of up to 25 individuals, narrowly fusiform, curved-ascending, dull rosy pink all over. Club opaque, appearing waxy; apex rounded. Stipe concolorous with club, differing only in subglabrous texture.
Tramal hyphae up to 18 µm diam., thin-walled, clampless, inflated, constricted at primary septa, short-celled, parallel; secondary septa common; wall thickened in narrow transverse bands here and there; gloeoplerous hyphae rare, uninflated, highly refringent. Subhymenium poorly developed. Hymenium thickening; basidia 55-65 x 7.5-9 µm, clavate, clampless, 4.5-5 µm thick at base; contents multiguttulate at maturity, the guttules small and highly refringent; sterigmata 4, short, spindly.
Spores 6.8-8.3x4.7-5.4 µm (E = 1.33-1.62; E^m 1.46; L^m = 7.52 µm), ovate to ellipsoid, smooth, flattened adaxially, thin-walled; contents uniguttulate when mature; hilar appendix small, papillate, not prominent.

>On humus.

When I first collected this, I thought it was the same as Clavaria roseo-violacea, for both form clumps of pink fruit bodies. I noted the colour as the same as C. rubicundula, with which I am familiar from North America. As a result, accurate colour notes are not available. Moreover, the specimen was old when collected, and most fruit bodies broke in transit from field to laboratory.
I can find no good reason to separate this from Clavaria rubicundula, which fruits in eastern North America from Michigan and the Canadian maritimes to the southern Appalachian Mountains. I would have no hesitation with such a distribution pattern if the taxon were reported from locations between North America and New Zealand, but I know of no such reports. Nonetheless, because I cannot separate the two taxa, I include the New Zealand specimen under the name hitherto reserved for North American material.
A single collection has been made of a taxon with simple fruit bodies of similar colouration to Clavaria rubicundula and with identical micromorphology. Fruit bodies were up to 45 x 3 mm, not as brittle as those of C. rubicundula, with stipe portion pallid pinkish flesh ("pale pinkish cinnamon") and glabrous, and club pallid violet-grey ("vinaceous buff"). No branching or fasciculation were seen. The stipes were pruinose with a white "bloom" at the base. Whether this specimen represents a separate taxon cannot be ascertained until more collections are made.