PDD 68538, 68544, 68785.

Fruiting body a stalked sporangium, scattered, gregarious or sometimes united by their fused stalks and occurring in digitate clusters of 2–20 or more sporangia, 0.3–4.0 mm tall. Sporotheca ovate to cylindrical, usually tapering toward the apex, pale grey to light brown, ochraceous or less commonly yellowish brown, 0.1–0.8 mm in diameter. Stalk slender, pallid to black, up to 2 mm in length. Hypothallus discoid or contiguous for a group of sporangia, transparent and often not evident. Peridium persisting in mature fruiting bodies only at the base of the sporotheca, where it forms a rather small, shallow calyculus with a smooth, delicately stippled, finely reticulate inner surface. Capillitium firmly attached to the calyculus, colourless or nearly so by transmitted light, consisting of a network of threads 2–6 µm in diameter and densely covered with small blunt spines (occasionally also with cogs, bands or reticulations). Spores pale grey or light yellow in mass, colourless by transmitted light, with a few scattered warts, 6–7 µm in diameter. Plasmodium white, less commonly grey or pale yellow.

Cosmopolitan (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969). First reported from New Zealand by Lister & Lister (1905), based on a specimen collected in Taupo. Also known from Northland, Auckland, Coromandel, Buller, North Canterbury, South Canterbury, Dunedin, Southland, Stewart Island, and Campbell Island.

Decaying wood, bark, leaf litter, and dung.

Martin & Alexopoulos (1969), Nannenga-Bremekamp (1991), Neubert et al. (1993), Stephenson & Stempen (1994), Lado & Pando (1997), Ing (1999).

This very variable species is relatively common in the field and exceedingly so in moist chamber cultures, especially cultures prepared with samples of leaf litter from broadleaf trees.