Beilschmiedia tawa (A.Cunn.) Hook.f. & Benth. Wellington: Weraroa, 50ft, July 1919, G.H.C. Casuarina sp. North Queensland: Stony Creek, June 1955, W.Pont, No. 886, type collection, P.D.D. herbarium, No. 17709. Leptospermum ericoides A.Rich. Auckland: Parahaki, Whangarei, June 1948, J.M.Dingley. Litsaea calicaris (Sol.) Benth. & Hook.f. Auckland: Woodhill, 100ft, July 1953, J.M.Dingley.

Hymenophore annual, membranous, pileate. Pilei effused-reflexed, with broad resupinate bases, 12-25 mm long, 8-12 mm radius, or applanate when imbricate, 5-30 mm wide, 5-10 mm radius; pileus surface straw colour or pallid tan, finely tomentose, concentrically sulcate and zoned with bands of hairs of different shades of brown, radiately rugulose; margin thinning out, plane, entire, somewhat complicate, concolorous. Hymenial surface straw colour, rough with spines, not creviced. Spines subulate, terete, crowded, 0.5-2.5 mm long. Context white or straw colour, 0.2-0 5 mm thick, composed of intertwined mainly parallel hyphae; skeletal hyphae 5-8 µ diameter, walls 0.2 µ thick, hyaline, staining, sparsely septate, sparsely branched; generative hyphae 3-4.5 µ diameter, walls 0.5-1 µ thick, hyaline, staining, branched, septate, with clamp connexions. Hymenial layer to 35 µ deep, a dense palisade of basidia, paraphyses and conducting hyphae. Basidia subclavate, 10-16 x 3.5-4 µ, 4-spored; sterigmata slender, erect, to 3 µ long. Paraphyses subclavate, 8-12 x 3-3.5 µ. Conducting hyphae arising in the context, traversing spines and forming the bulk of the axial tissues, cylindrical, 5-8 µ diameter, projecting slightly at spine apices, turning at right angles and projecting for 50 µ from the hymenial layer of the spines, naked, filled with refractive oily contents. Spores oval or obovate, 2-2.5 x 1.5-2 µ, walls smooth, hyaline, 0.l µ thick.

DISTRIBUTION: Queensland, New Zealand

HABITAT: Usually imbricate on bark of dead stems and stumps.

Hymenophorum lignicoloratum, membranaceum. Pilei effuso-reflexi; superficies straminea vel pallide alutacea, tomentosa, concentraliter sulcata et ordinibus pilorum varie brunneorum cincta, radiatim rugulosa. Contextus hypharum skeletalium plurimum parallelarum, hyalinarum, 5-8 µ diam., generatoriarum 3-5 µ diam., nodulosarum. Basidia subclavata, 10-16 x 3.5-4 µ. Hyphae lactiferae, in spinis traversae, ad 50 µ eminentes, 5-8 µ diam. Sporae ovales vel obovatae, 2-2.5 x 1.5-2 µ, parietibus levibus, hyalinis.

An unusual feature which enables the species to be recognized readily is the presence of conducting hyphae, containing refractive contents and oil drops, a feature not noted in any other species of Steccherinum. A second is the small size of the spores, which do not exceed 2.5 µ in length, and are difficult to see unless thin sections are prepared and adequately stained. Surface features resemble those of S. ochraceum, and in fact one collection was so named by C.G.Lloyd. Skeletal hyphae are thin-walled and form the conducting hyphae; walls of the generative hyphae are relatively thick in hyphae of the context (though thin-walled in the sub-hymenium) the converse of what is usually found in species with a dimitic hyphal system. Hyphae stain deeply in aniline blue.

Casuarina sp. North Queensland: Stony Creek, June 1955, W.Pont, No. 886, type collection, P.D.D. herbarium, No. 17709.