North Island: Upper Hutt, Kaitoke Waterworks, under Dacrydium and tree ferns, 22.v.82, no. 43560 (TENN); OSF, Kauri Reserve, l .vi.82, coll. RHP, no. 43563 (TENN); WR, Sharp's Bush, 19.v.81, coll. EH, no. 614 (ZT); Auckland, Piha, 271.65, coll. Dingley, RFRM, no. 19 (PDD); Auckland, Karekare, 9.vi.65, coll. RFRM, no. 46 (PDD); Auckland, Titirangi, 22.ii.66, coll. RFRM, no. 87 (PDD); WR, Sharp's Bush, 5.vi.65, coll. Dingley, RFRM, no. 83 (PDD); vic. Ruamahanga River, 21.v.78, coll. G. Stevenson, no. 78/79 (WELTU); OSF, Loop Walk, 10.v.83, coll. RHP, no. 43830 (TENN); WKR, Yakas Tree Track, 13.v.83, coll. GS, no. 44123 (TENN). South Island: Nelson, Puponga, 9.v.68, coll. EH, no. 68/399 (ZT); PSR,17.v.82, coll. RHP, no. 43562 (TENN); PSR, 21.v.82, coll. RHP, no. 43561 (TENN).

Fruit bodies up to 70 x 7 mm, simple clubs, solitary, gregarious or in groups of 2-3, cylindrical to subclavate; consistency fleshy to fleshy-stringy. Stipe up to 20 x 5 mm, more or less terete, rounded at base, with no mycelial pad, pale pinkish salmon below, concolourous with club above, and not well set off from it. Club terete when young, inflating irregularly during elongation to irregularly sulcate, wrinkled or ridged by maturity, appearing waxy, fleshy pink to fleshy salmon ("bittersweet-orange", "peach-red", "light salmon-orange"); flesh bright, at first concolourous to hymenium, in age more brightly coloured ("salmon-orange") just beneath hymenium; apex broadly rounded, subspathulate to subturbinate in age, narrowly rounded" when young. Taste mildly of carrots, tardily bitter; odour negligible.
Macro chemical reaction: FCL = negative.
Tramal hyphae of club 4-9 µm diam., hyaline, clamped, somewhat inflated, parallel, free, of short cells, often anastomosing by "H"-connections. Subhymenium extensive, of tortuous, uninflated, clamped hyphae. Hymenium thickening; basidia 65-85 x 7-9 µm, clavate, clamped, persistent for some time after spore discharge; contents homogeneous, opalescent by maturity and then sub refringent; sterigmata 4, very stout, up to 11 µm long, divergent, nearly straight.
Spores 5.8-7.2 x 5.8-6.8 µm (E = 1.00-1.12; E^m = 1.05; L^m = 6.50 µm), globose to subglobose, thin-walled, opalescent; hilar appendix papillate, slender.

With personal experience, I can now comprehend van Overeem's (1923a,b) concept of Clavaria sulcata as a bright salmon fleshy club. For many years I have treated the name as belonging to a group including C. aurantio-cinnabarina, C. phoenicea, C. miyabiana Imai, all of which produce narrowly fusiform or cylindrical, waxy-appearing fruit bodies with very little sign of sulcation. Now, with the discovery of C. novo-zealandica and the specimens cited below, a different alliance is revealed.
The reader must be cautioned that whereas my redescriptions of the type specimen of Clavulinopsis sulcata (Petersen 1967b, 1980) were correct, and my transfer of the epithet to Clavaria is still acceptable, my taxonomic treatment has been faulty. Likewise, Comer's (1950, p. 379) depletion of "abnormally expanded fruit bodies" was on the mark for normal fruit bodies, faithful to the type specimen, and his fruit body dimensions (up to 100 x 2-4 mm) were not true to the type, but typical of his concept and my own over the years.
The photographs of Clavaria taxa will confirm my description and commentary: the differences between C. phoenicea var. persicina and C. sulcata are obvious in size and stature, but in colour and micromorphology the taxa are similar. Again, some orangey-yellow individuals of Ramariopsis simplex may also be mistaken for C. sulcata.
Horak's collection 68/399 from Nelson represents a brighter, more coral-red form, although otherwise indistinguishable from normal C. sulcata. It may be seen as the upper figures in the illustration of Ramariopsis ovispora.
Fruit bodies of Clavaria phoenicea var. persicina are similarly coloured when young, but consistently are more peach or apricot, and remain narrowly cylindrical or fusiform throughout their development. Likewise, fruit bodies of C. corallino-rosacea are similarly coloured, but the species is easily separated on its elongate spores. Finally, Ramariopsis laeticolor, of a more vivid or brash scarlet-orange, can be distinguished on its pear-shaped spores, greening in FCL, and retention of colour on drying.