Weraroa, Wellington, Nov., 1919, E. H. Atkinson, S. A. Cunningham, G.H.C. Type collections.

Peridium up to 4 em. diam., subglobose or depressed globose ; exoperidium a sand case, up to 3 mm thick, firm, brittle, dull purple, breaking away irregularly and completely; endoperidium thin, papyraceous, fragile, dark purple, almost black, free from the endoperidium save at the base, where attached, but not organically, dehiscing by irregular rupture. Gleba purple, firm; capillitium threads deep chestnut brown, short, thick-walled. Spores globose or shortly elliptical, 10-14.5 mmm. diam., apedicellate; epispore deep chestnut brown, closely and finely reticulate.

New Zealand.

In sand among sand-dunes; hypogaean.

The species is characterized by the purple colour of the whole plant, the thick sand-case exoperidium, fragile, non-stomate endoperidium and deeply coloured, reticulate spores. The habit is peculiar. The plant grows buried to a depth of several centimetres, 7-10 or more, in sand at Weraroa beach. When wind erosion occurs, as is frequent in this area of shifting dunes, the sand is blown for some distance, large amphitheatres being formed, and the globose plants are carried by the wind often to one kilometre or more from their place of origin. They are rolled along the ground and finally arrested by debris of the nature of branches of trees and stumps half buried at the tops of the long dune slopes. Here they come to rest, and the peridium is gradually removed by friction of sand-particles.

Weraroa, Wellington, Nov., 1919, E. H. Atkinson, S. A. Cunningham, G.H.C. Type collections.

[Notes from Kew Type specimen, PRJ 2010] Kew images.