SPECIMENS EXAMINED: (all on seed of Rhopalostylis sapida Wendl. & Drude): NORTHLAND: Bay of Islands County, Puketi State Forest, picnic area along Waipapa River, Samuels (82-120) & Johnston, 16 Apr. 1982 (PDD 44333). AUCKLAND: Waitemata City, Waitakere Ranges, Cascades, Samuels (81-349) et al., 14 Aug. 1981 (PDD 45691); Waitakere Ranges, Titirangi Beach Reserve, Samuels (82-13) & Hennebert, 27 Feb. 1982 (PDD 44267).

Stromata solitary or gregarious, 2.5-4.5 cm long, unbranched with apex attenuated and acute or enlarged and palmate. Fertile portion subapical, cylindrical, 1-2 cm long x 2.0-2.5 mm diam.; stipe sharply delimited from the fertile portion, 1-2 cm long x 1.0-1.5 mm diam., with a velutinous coat of short, reddish hyphae. Stromal surface with brown tissue cracking longitudinally, slightly tuberculate from perithecia) elevations; perithecia almost completely immersed, 300-400 µm diam., ostioles difficult to see. Internal tissue of stroma white, solid. Asci 130-140 µm total length x 5-6(-7) µm, sporiferous part (65-)74-87 (-90) µm, cylindrical; 8-spored, apical ring cylindrical, J+, 2 µm high x 2-3 µm wide; ascospores uniseriate with overlapping ends. Ascospores (8-)10-13(-16) x (4.5-)5.0-6.0(6.5) µm, inequilateral with one side straight and the other curved; in top view elliptical to naviculate with one end attenuated; transparent brown; slit full length or nearly so, parallel to the long axis of the ascospore.
CHARACTERISTICS IN CULTURE: Colonies grown two weeks at 20°C in diffuse daylight on OA 4.5 cm diam.; mycelium flat, white but with a blue-green ring around the centre, incipient stromata sometimes forming in the centre of the colony; with a rose-coloured pigment spreading into the medium; surface of colony eventually becoming dark olivaceous and velvety; stromata forming within one month, erect, 2-3 cm long x 2 mm diam. at base, branched, clothed in green hyphae; tip acute, white, conidiogenous. Conidiophores arising from aerial hyphae along upper half of the stroma, loosely dispersed and not forming a distinct palisade, unbranched, 25-55 µm long x 2-3 µm wide at base, straight, smooth, hyaline; producing a small number of conidia at the tip, a minute denticle remaining after conidial dehiscence. Conidia (4.0-)4.5-6.5(-8.0) x 2.0-2.5(-3.0) µm, ellipsoidal, with a protuberant, flattened, weakly refractive basal abscission scar.

DISTRIBUTION: NORTH ISLAND: Northland, Auckland.

HABITAT: Monocotyledonous trees.

NOTES: Our concept of X. palmicolais that of Dennis (1956). The fungus described here differs from his description in its somewhat smaller ascospores.

Xylaria palmicola was introduced by G. Winter (1887) from seeds of Euterpe sp. (Arecaceae) in Brazil. This species is characterized by slender, cylindrical, and long stroma, simple, with pointed apex, perithecia rather prominent, brown surface with longitudinally along numerous and closely spaced parallel cracks, stipes defined well, very long, becoming longitudinally wrinkled and some twisted when dried, and ascospores with pointed ends [74]. There is no sequence data of the type of X. palmicola, but a putatively named collection (PDD604) from New Zealand [27]. In the phylogenetic tree, the strain from New Zealand distributed in the genus Heteroxylaria (Figure 1). Based on morphological studies and phylogenetic analyses, we propose the transfer of X. palmicola into Heteroxylaria.