Holotype (PDD 27075); Isotype (Herb. HK. ZT 68/231): 'Bell Hill Junction, Kopara. Ngahere, Prov. Westcoast. nov.Z.; leg,. Horak, 29.III.1968'. - Herb. HK. ZT 69/137: 'X-mas Village, Track to Mt. Anglem, Stewart Island, N.Z.; leg. Horak, 15.III.1969'.

Pileus 5-20 mm diam., hemispherical when young becoming convex to campanulate, aged specimen plane, grey-beige, brownish to dark beige densely covered with small concolorous scales or squamules, felty, degraded carpophores sometimes concentrically cracking, dry, estriate. Lamellae emarginate-adnate to subdecurrent, anastomosing, whitish-grey turning beige, subdistant, gill edge concolorous, even. Stipe 8-20 x 1.5-3 mm, attenuated towards the base, rarely equal, concolorous with pileus, apex pruinose, elsewhere glabrous, dry, solid, single. Context whitish-beige, not waxy. Taste and odor slightly acidulous or not distinctive. Chemical reactions on Pileus: KOH, HCl - negative. Spores 3.5-4.5(5) µm, subglobose, smooth, dextrinoid to faintly amyloid. Basidia 25-36 x 5 µm, 4 (rarely also) 2-spored. Cystidia lacking. Cuticle a palisade consisting of erect, short-cylindric, not gelatinized hyphae (6-12 µm diam.), terminal cells apically rounded or conic, vacuolar and plasmatic pigment present. Clamp connections absent on cuticular hyphae.

On soil under Nothofagus, Metrosideros, Weinmannia, Senecio, etc. New Zealand.

Pileo 5-20 mm lato, ex hemisphaerico convexo vel campanulato, pallide brunneo vel argillaceo, furfuraceo usque ad squamuloso, sicco. Lamellis emarginato-adnatis vel subdecurrentibus, ex albido argillaceis, anastomosantibus. Stipite 8-20 x 1.5-3 mm, basim versus attenuato, pileo concolori, sicco. Sporis 3.5-4.5(5) µm, subglobosis, dextrinoideis. Epicute ex hyphis erectis palisadam formantibus, pigmento plasmatico instructis, fibulis nullis. Ad terram in silvis. Novazelandia.

This is a striking species by virtue of the brownish, unchanging, squamulose pileus, subglobose spores and absence of clamp connections.

Holotypus (PDD 27075): 'Kopara, Ngahere Prov. Westcoast, N.Z.; leg. Horak, 29.III.1968'.

SPECIMENS: NZ: WL, Hari Hari, Mt Wilberg, PDD 27189. -N,  Reefton, Awarau River, Larry's Creek, ZT 2009. - SL, Te Anau, Mt Luxmore, ZT 1935. - STI, Christmas Village, Mt Anglem, ZT 69/137.

Pileus -50 mm, hemispherical, convex to broadly umbonate, centre flat to subdepressed in aged basidiomes; pale brown, grey-brown to soot brown, paler towards margin: conspicuously velutinous, felty, on disc often breaking up into small concentrically arranged squamules, dry, obscurely Striate when moist, opaque, margin splitting with age. - lamellae 14-22 (1 -5) broadly adnate to decurrent, arcuate, emarginate-ventricose in aged basidiomes, up to 11 mm wide, occasionally anastomosing at base; whitish to pale brown, often with sooty tints, edges concolorous, entire, rarely forked towards margin of pileus. - Stipe 8-45 x 1.5-8 mm, equal or tapering towards base, often enlarged into pileus; concolorous with pileus or paler, occasionally with orange or pale red-brown tinge; dry, glabrous to subpruinose at apex, otherwise minutely fibrillose, stiff, often twisted, solid becoming fistulose, single. - Context whitish to pale brown or grey-brown, brown in base of stipe (occasionally with reddish tinge). - Odour and taste absent or slightly acidulous, fragrant, mild. - Chemical reactions on pileus: KOH, HCl negative. Spores (3-) 3.5-4.5 (-5) um, subglobose with distinct apiculus, inamyloid but sometimes faintly dextrinoid or amyloid. - Basidia 22-36 x 4-6 um, 4-spored. - Cheilo- and pleurocystidia absent - Caulocystidia 10-40 x 3-10 um, cylindrical to clavate, membrane hyaline, encrusted with pigment. - Pileipellis a palisade or trichoderm of erect, bundled, short-cylindrical hyphae (4-12 um diam.), terminal cells fusoid, clavate or conical, membrane not gelatinised, encrusted with brown (KOH) pigment, often also dissolved in cell sap, oleiferous hyphae absent; clamp connections absent (Pl. 1, Fig. 3).

DISTRIBUTION: NZ (N, WL, SL, STI).

ECOLOGY: Common; saprobic on soil among moss, Sphagnum or litter (sometimes also on rotten fallen logs) in beech forests (Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides. N.fusca), mixed broadleaved-conifer forests (Leptospermum scoparium, Metrosideros sp., Weinmannia racemosa, Dacrydium cupressinum), shrubs (Senecio sp.) or under tree fems (Dicksonia). March.

ICON.: Horak (1973: 125).

The taxonomic position of this polymorphic yet readily recognised agaric in the genus Aeruginospora (only known from its type locality in Java, Indonesia) is questionable. Morphologically the New Zealand taxon resembles several European species lumped into Hygrophorus (Moser, 1983) or Hygrotrama (Singer 1962; Arnolds 1985).

TYPE: NZ: WL, Ngahere, Nelson Creek, Bell Hill Junction, on soil under N. solandri var. cliffortioides, 29 iii 1968, Horak, PDD 27075.