Summary:
Features include 1) a vinaceous to blood red cap that is dry, shiny, and translucent-striate at the margin, 2) reddish brown flesh, 3) adnate to slightly decurrent, broad gills that are deep vinaceous when young, 4) a wine-red stem with a white base, 5) a silky white veil on the cap and stem when young, 6) growth on rotten wood or base of Arbutus menziesii (Pacific madrone), 7) a cinnamon-brown spore deposit, and 8) microscopic characters. The type was found in 1937 at the California-Oregon state line as a single collection on a burned stump and described as a Pholiota. Only in recent years was it rediscovered as the "Christmas Naucoria" fruiting in December at the base of mature Arbutus trees. As the word got out along the west coast, and observers looked in the right place at the right time, other collections were made. It was investigated and redescribed at Tubaria punicea in 2007.

Cap:
1-5cm across, hemispheric-convex to convex, expanding when old to flat-convex, disc at times with a low, blunt umbo, margin decurved [downcurved], "occasionally irregular or wavy when in small clusters"; "wine-red (vinaceous) to blood-red but shading a lighter tone toward the margin"; "surface dry but shiny, translucent striate at the margin, when young covered by a silky white veil, later finely fibrillose to smooth", (Matheny), 1-1.5cm across, hemispheric-convex, more or less expanding; blood red; bald, margin subplicate [somewhat pleated], (Smith)

Flesh:
reddish brown, (Matheny), reddish brown, (Smith)

Gills:
adnate to slightly decurrent, broad, moderately close; deep vinaceous when young, brown with a vinaceous tinge when old, (Matheny), "adnate or adnexed, moderately close, broad"; red, (Smith)

Stem:
2-9cm x 0.25-0.6cm, central, round in cross-section to compressed, at times slightly widened toward the base; "wine-red, base white"; "covered with silky white veil when young, fibrillose to coarsely fibrillose or twisted-fibrillose with striate appearance by maturity", (Matheny), 1.5-2cm x 0.2-0.3cm, 0.5cm wide when compressed; sometimes slightly enlarged in lower part; "minutely fibrillose, with a white fibrillose zone", longitudinally striate, (Smith)

Veil:
when young the silky white veil shows on the cap and the stem, (Matheny), no membranous veil, but white fibrillose zone present, (Smith)

Odor:
not remarkable (Matheny)

Microscopic spores:
spores in side view (6.5)7.0-9.0(9.5) x 4.0-5.5 microns, at times 9.0-10.0 x 5.0-6.0 microns, slightly wider in face view, somewhat phaseoliform [bean-shaped] "to elliptic or even oblong in side view, elliptic to ovate in face view", smooth, "rusty cinnamon in KOH, dingy ochraceous in Melzer''s reagent (paler)", thick-walled, no apical germ pore visible, apiculus indistinct; basidia (2-)4-spored, 26-30 x 5-9 microns, narrowly clavate to subcylindric, many basidia with colorless refractive amorphous content variously disposed; pleurocystidia "present only as scattered pseudocystidia in the hymenium", 20-33 x 3-5 microns, "crooked, contents dark cinnamon in KOH", cheilocystidia in clusters on gill edge, (25)30-65(80) x 4-12(16) microns, versiform, short clavate to ovate, 15-30 x 7-10 microns, "with the wall slightly to distinctly thickened and pale cinnamon in KOH", ventricose at the base (6-8 microns wide) "with a long, narrow flexuous neck and subacute apex", utriform to dumbbell-shaped "with the enlarged apex as broad as the ventricose portion and rarely with a secondary septum in the constriction"; clamp connections present, (Matheny), spores 7.5-8.5 x 4.5-5 microns (9-10 x 5-6 microns for 2-spored basidia), elliptic to ovate in face view, in side view somewhat bean-shaped to elliptic, no germ pore visible, small apiculus showing; rusty cinnamon in KOH, dingy ochraceous in Melzer''s reagent (paler), wall thin but double; basidia (2-) and 4-spored, 26-30 x 5-9 microns, "narrowly clavate to subcylindric, the hymenium pale dull cinnamon as revived in KOH", many basidia with colorless refractive content of amorphous material variously disposed, in Melzer''s reagent yellowish; pleurocystidia present only as scattered pseudocystidia in hymenium, 20-33 x 3-5 microns, "crooked, content dark cinnamon in KOH", cheilocystidia 32-50 x 4-16 microns, versiform, short-clavate to ovate, 15-30 x 7-10 microns, "with the wall very slightly thickened and pale cinnamon in KOH", ventricose at base (6-8 microns) "with a long narrow flexuous neck and subacute apex", colorless and thin-walled, utriform to dumbbell-shaped with the enlarged apex as broad as the ventricose part and rarely with a secondary septum in the constriction, colorless in KOH and collapsing readily; caulocystidia 40-80 x 5-11 microns, clavate to irregularly ventricose, walls thickened (at times irregularly) and colorless to yellowish in KOH; clamp connections present, (Smith)

Spore deposit:
cinnamon brown (Matheny)

Notes:
Matheny(6) examined collections from BC, OR (type), and CA. MykoWeb(1), accessed May 3, 2016, says it is known from coastal regions of CA, OR, and WA.

EDIBILITY

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Pholiota punicea A.H. Sm. & Hesler