It is not rare. Walk through any damp beech forest on the western slopes of the Southern Alps after three days of rain, and you will find it. The clusters push through moss, sometimes solitary, sometimes in scattered troops. White is the wrong word. They are pale, yes. But closer inspection reveals branching tips tinged with buff, with grey, with the faintest blush of violet at the base. The branches fork repeatedly. Each tip ends bluntly, like a tiny club someone forgot to finish carving. Fruiting bodies rarely exceed eight centimetres in height. Some grow half that size and still manage to look elaborate. Threats are fungal-specific rather than landscape-wide. Root disturbance from wild pigs. Prolonged drought. The loss of mature podocarp-broadleaf forest to pasture. Unlike mycorrhizal species, Clavulina coralloides is saprotrophic. It breaks down organic matter directly. Fallen logs, accumulated twigs, the compacted litter of decades. This means it does not depend on living trees. It depends on the forest floor itself. When the floor dries out or gets scraped away, the fungus vanishes. Diet consists of decomposing wood and leaf litter. It secretes enzymes that digest lignin and cellulose, turning dead plant tissue back into soil components. The process is slow. A single log may host the same genetic individual for years, hidden as mycelium, visible only when conditions trigger fruiting. Range includes the North Island from Waikato southward, and the South Island from Nelson to Fiordland. Records cluster in Westland, the Marlborough Sounds, and around Rotorua's exotic forest blocks. It does not occur on Stewart Island or the Chatham Islands, based on current surveys. Habitat preferences are specific: mature native or mixed forest with intact litter layers. It avoids pasture, pine plantations, and regenerating scrub less than fifteen years old. The fungus needs decay that has accumulated. Young forests lack that depth.