Hi Karl,

Thanks for your suggestion I like this better then Lepiota purpurata which I was never happy with. There are some better photos of it on my website now this time found under beech.

Has some beautiful mushrooms. I was very surprised to finally understand how obscure this section in science is. NZ and Australia are both places I would love to go and hunt. From discussions here on MO, I see how badly needed more study is!

Sorry to soap box on your observation, this is a truly neat mushroom.

Agree with Debbie that this is probably the Rhodocollybia (unpubl. sp.) frequently found in NZ, but heavily infected by a parasite. I posted a picture of it recently on Mike Wallace’s thread, but don’t know how to refer to it further.

Its unfortunate that meltzers is not something I can lay my hands on very easily a problem I have not as yet been able to resolve. I do have a little but its so old that results can not be trusted!!

I like Noah suggestion of Lepiota purpurata other then the gills which maybe parasitized the description looks hopeful! will look again at my collection when I have time.

http://nzfungi.landcareresearch.co.nz/...

Debbie
I find it quite frustrating that NZ has so many fungi that are not named, even groups that have been well document its not to difficult to find un described species from with in such groups. Added to this we have no field guides available!!

if this is the Rhodocollybia sp. “Wairora,” then it would have a dextrinoid layer in the spores.

Neither of the two mushroom descriptions linked to by Noah mention the encrusted hyphae. and those gills…! I commonly see a Lactarius species in Northern CA that has gills just like these…more like they are changing to a secotioid form rather than being parasitized…but more questions than answers with this curious and spectacular fungus!

Man, no fair posting these NZ sightings…they put our boring old North American species to shame!

The gills in the second shot… like pallid, blood-filled veins. One of my favorite photos on the site.

Spore colour and shape fits a lot in that family (Mycena, Clitocybe, Lyophyllum etc., but I have never seen anything like this. Laccaria, with spiny spores, is out of the question. The distortion of the gills can be a result of some parasite – or maybe not..?

To clarify, my last comment was not an argument for Entoloma. It was in consideration of whether the mushroom might be parasitized.

For some (dumb) reason, I only now noticed the location of this find. I’ve seen some very unique fungi from NZ and AU, so I would not be surprised if this is something very different that I am not familiar with.

What a bizarre combination of characters. If the spores are boletus-shaped, then I agree with Clive that Entoloma is out of the question. Also, the lamellae may have been parasitized, but also look like they were rather veiny/intervenose/contorted to begin with.

I imagine it would depend on where you sectioned the tissue. For instance, it looks like the part of the gills nearest the bottom of the photo is more fully consumed by mycelium than the opposite side. If your section was from a part that was not fully colonized, then you might still see basidia.
To confirm, take a section from the area that looks well colonized and see if you can find any asci.
If you cannot find any asci, then I guess this is something different altogether, as you suspect.

Oh, also- the gills look considerably deformed, but I’m guessing that this is a result of the parasitism. I’ve seen some partially colonized, yet rather malformed mushroom fruiting bodies.

CureCat
I am not convinced this is an Entoloma spore colour/shape is not right. If its been parasitized by Hypomyces then would I not see hyphae growing over the basida?

I would agree, an Entoloma, maybe E. bloxami. It appears to be parasitized by Hypomyces.