Holotype (K): 'Keith George Park, Wellington, N.Z.; leg. Stevenson (643), 15.VI.1949'. - Holotype of H. miniceps Stev. (K): 'Butterfly, Wellington, N.Z.; leg. Stevenson (1348), 2.VI.1958'. - Herb. HK. ZT 68/119: 'SW of Kumara, Mitchell’s, Lake Brunner, Prov. Westcoast, N.Z.; leg. Horak, 9.III.1968'. - Herb. HK. ZT 69/145: Xmas Village, Stewart Island, N.Z.; leg. Horak, 17.III.1969'.

Pileus 5-50 mm diam., scarlet, deep red-orange or orange-luteous hemispherical when young, later becoming expanded with low umbilicus fibrillose to minutely scaly, fibrils concolorous, squamules free and upturned or appressed, margin estriate, dry. Lamellae adnate to decurrent, red-orange to orange paler at the edges, distant. Stipe 15-70 x 3-6 mm, cylindric, equal or attenuated towards the base, red-orange to orange, paler near the base, smooth, dry, hollow. Context red-orange, yellow in the stipe. Odor and taste not distinctive. Chemical reactions on pileus: KOH, NH3 and HCl - negative. Spores 11-17 x 7-10 µm, ellipsoid to amygdaliform, smooth, inamyloid. Basidia 55-75 x 8-12 µm, 4- and rarely also 2-spored. Cystidia absent. Cuticle consisting of cylindric, not gelatinized hyphae (8-14 µm diam.) forming a cutis, tips of hyphae suberect, epimembranous and/or plasmatic pigment present. Clamp connections numerous.

In soil under Beilschmiedia, Dacrydium, Weinmannia, Metrosideros, etc., occasionally also under Nothofagus. New Zealand.

Stevenson 1962: Fig. 2/10-11; Pl. 6/5,7; Taylor 1970 (back cover).

In New Zealand this is a widely distributed and easily recognized species which occurs mainly in Podocarpus and broad leaved forests but is rarely seen in Nothofagus associations. Macroscopically H. procera . (Stev.) resembles H. intermedia (Pass.) or H. marchii (Bres.) but its large spores definitely separate it from the two European fungi. With respect to the size of the spores, the squamulose pileus and the colours, H. procera appears to be closely related with H. pseudococcineus Hongo (1955). Unfortunately no type material was available to compare the two taxa, which also have some relationships with H. suzukaensis Hongo (1962). However, the latter species differs in having a glabrous and non scurfy pileus. All characters found on the type material of H. miniceps Stevenson (1962) . also described from New Zealand indicate that this fungus is conspecific with H. procera (Stev.).