OLEACEAE. Gymnelaea lanceolata: Auckland, Waitakere Ranges, 300 m. UNKNOWN HOSTS. Queensland, Tully Falls, Atherton Tableland. Fiji, Suva Forestry Station; Upolu.

Hymenophore annual, coriaceous, scattered or crowded, sessile. Pilei commonly flabelliform when attached by a narrow lateral umbonate base, conchate, cupulate or pateriform when attached by a basal umbo, sometimes imbricate, 1.5-7 cm radius, 1-5 cm wide; pileus surface at first velutinate and azonate, soon concentrically banded with zones of coloured hairs which may be bay, chestnut, reddish-brown or even olivaceous, often radiately rugulose or fluted; margin entire, crenate, deeply lobed, or torn, darker in colour, thinning out; hymenial surface reflecting surface irregularities, ranging in colour from cream through ochre to rich reddish-brown, often vernicose and pruinose towards the base. Context white or wood colour with, in mature plants, a thick, waxy, deep, subhymenial zone, 0.3-1 mm thick, a dense layer of mainly parallel hyphae bordered by a narrow cortex bearing abhymenial hairs which may be slightly inflated at their free ends; skeletal hyphae 4-6 µm diameter, walls thickened; generative hyphae 2.5-3 µm diameter, walls 0.2 µm thick, with clamp connections. Gloeocystidia arising at different depths in the subhymenium, penetrating the hymenial layer but not projecting, flexuous-cylindrical or fusiform, usually somewhat inflated near bases, 60-110 x 6-10 µm. Metuloids arising at various depths in the subhymenium, not projecting, obconic or fusiform with prominent pedicels, 35-56 x 12-16 µm, walls to 4 µm thick, encrusted, pedicels hyaline. Hymenial layer 50-250 µm deep, a dense almost gelatinised layer of basidia, paraphyses, gloeocystidia, and metuloids. Basidia subclavate, 12-18 x 3.5-4 µm, bearing 4 spores; sterigmata erect, slender, to 4 µm long. Paraphyses cylindrical, 12-18 x 2.5-3 µm. Spores elliptical, apiculate, 3-3.5 x 2-2.5 µm, walls smooth, hyaline, 0.1 µm thick.

DISTRIBUTION: Mauritius, South Africa, Philippine Islands, Fiji, New Guinea, Cook Islands, Australia, New Zealand.

HABITAT: Solitary or crowded on bark of dead branches and trunks.

Collections agree with the type of 'Thelephora' involuta Kl. in Kew herbarium. Although Fries (1838, p. 546), Massee (1890, p. 176) and Saccardo (1888, p. 560) cited Klotzsch as the author and Linnaea7: 499, 1830 as the place of publication, there is no reference to the species in that or any other volume of Linnaea. His was most likely a herbarium name validated by Fries. Specimens show a wide range of variation in size, shape, surface markings, and colour of the pileus surface and hymenium. Several species were based on slight differences in these, and according to Lloyd (1922, p. 1115) Stereum bresadoleanum Lloyd, S. gossweileri Lloyd, and S. philippense Lloyd were erected on slight differences in colour and markings of the pileus surface. When young, plants are conchate and attached by a lateral or basal umbo and the surface is velutinate without evident zoning. As plants enlarge they mostly change in shape to flabelliform and become concentrically zoned with bands of different shades of brown hairs. According to their age when collected, in these features alone plants may exhibit the minor differences upon which Lloyd's several species were based. The hymenial surface also shows a wide range of colours; at first cream or ochre, in old plants it becomes rich reddish-brown and appears as if varnished. Plants also exhibit variations in numbers, shape, and size of gloeocystidia and metuloids. In old plants they are usually abundant and distributed through the thickened hymenial layer, which exhibits a granular appearance owing to being partly gelatinised with components cemented. There are numerous collections from this region in Kew herbarium, placed under the covers of Stereum involutum, S. moselei, S. prolicans, and S. vespilloneum. S. hollandii Lloyd, ex "Okumi, Cross River Expedition, J. H. Holland, No. 40" is based on an infundibuliform plant, not uncommon in Fijian collections at hand.

TYPE LOCALITY: Mauritius.