Holotype (K): 'Levin, N.Z.; leg. Stevenson (654) 18.VI.1949'. - Herb. HK. ZT 68/144: 'Lake Hochstetter, Prov. Westcoast'' N.Z.; leg. Horak, 12.III.1968'.

Pileus 10-40 mm diam., conical when young later becoming plano-convex, aged specimens radially splitting, ivory or whitish, silky fibrillose, slightly striated towards the margin of the pileus, dry. Lamellae free to adnexed, white, distant, gill edge concolorous, even. Stipe 20-60 x 3-8 mm, cylindric, equal or attenuated at the base, concolorous with pileus, silky, dry, hollow, fragile, often twisted. Context white. Taste and odor not distinctive. Chemical reactions on pileus: KOH, HCl and NH3 - negative. Spores 7-10 x 4.5-5 µm, ellipsoid, smooth, inamyloid. Basidia 33-42 x 7-8 µm, 4-spored. Cystidia absent. Cuticle a cutis of repent, cylindric, hyaline, not gelatinized hyphae (2-5 µm diam.). Clamp connections lacking.

In soil in Dacrydium-Podocarpus forests, rarely under Nothofagus spp. New Zealand.

Stevenson 1962: Fig. 1/1 a,b.

H. mavis (Stev.) has much the stature and the colours of H. purus Peck from North America but the dry pileus and stipe as well and the absence of clamp connections are clearly distinguishing characters.