Hymenophore annual, adnate, ceraceous, effused, forming orbicular or linear areas to 20 x 8 cm., with several outlying islands; surface cream, then ochre, colliculose, not creviced; margin thinning out, white, byssoid, adnate. Context white, 200-350 µ thick, composed of a narrow base of densely compacted cemented hyphae, and an intermediate layer of woven mainly vertical hyphae densely compacted beneath the hymenium, embedding a few scattered crystals; generative hyphae 3-4 µ diameter, wall 0.5-1 µ thick, naked, hyaline, branched, septate, without clamp connections. Hymenial layer to 90 µ deep, of basidia, paraphyses and gloeocystidia densely compacted. Basidia subclavate or subcylindrical, projecting, 12-16 x 3-4 µ, 4-spored; sterigmata slender, to 6 µ long. Paraphyses subclavate, much smaller than the basidia. Gloeocystidia arising in the intermediate layer, projecting to 20 µ, or not, cylindrical, a few fusiform, 40-90 x 6-8 µ, wall 1-2 µ thick, some irregularly distributed in the context, inclined, to 60 x 12 µ. Spores broadly elliptical, some apiculate, 4-5.5 x 2.5-3 µ, wall smooth, hyaline, 0.2 µ thick.

DISTRIBUTION. New Zealand.

HABITAT. Effused on bark of dead trunks.

Hymenophorum ceraceum, adnatum, effusum; , superficie cremea deinde ochracea, colliculosa, non rimosa. Hyphae contextus afibulatae, 3-4 µ diam., nudae. Basidia 12-16 x 3-4 µ, 4 sporis. Gloeocystidia 40-90 x 6-8 µ. Sporae laete ellipticae, 4-5.5 x 2.5-3 µ, laeves, hyalinae.

Specific features are the finely colliculose, closely adnate, non-creviced, ochraceous, ceraceous hymenophore, narrow cylindrical abundant gloeocystidia and small, broadly elliptical spores. Clamp connections are absent from hyphae of this and the following species [C. crystallitectum]. A few crystals are scattered in the base of the context of old specimens.

Corynocarpus laevigata Forst. Auckland: Buffalo Beach, Whitianga, November, 1947, E.E. Chamberlain, type collection, P.D.D. herbarium, No. 7421.

Basidiome cartilaginous, ceraceous when fresh. Hymenial surface warted, ochraceous; margin white. Subhymenial hyphae thin- to somewhat thick-walled, 2-3.5 µm wide, densely interwoven, sometimes fasciculate, not gelatinised. Clamps absent (or very rare on subicular hyphae). Tramal cystidia hyaline, clavate to cylindrical, thin- to generally somewhat thick-walled except at the apex, smooth or more rarely loosely encrusted with crystalline material, sometimes with a secondary septum, immersed or projecting up to 12 µm. Basidia typically narrowly clavate to cylindrical, 15-23 x2.5-4 µm, but in the youngest parts narrowly cylindrical, 20-32 X 2.5-3.5 µm Spores hyaline, thin-walled, ellipsoid, 3.7-5.5 x 2-2.5 x 2.5-3.3 µm, smooth, not amyloid.

The fungus on the type specimen covers both the bark of Corynocarpus laevigatus and the stroma of a pyrenomycete. It causes a weak white rot. The species fits well in Phlebiopsis Jülich because of the densely interwoven subhymenial hyphae, the narrow Basidia, and the shape of the cystidia; the fact that the cystidia are mostly encrusted in other species of the genus is not considered important at the generic level.