PDD 48200.

Fruiting body a stalked sporangium (rarely sessile to short-stalked), usually closely gregarious to densely crowded (sometimes to the point of forming a pseudoaethalium), 0.8–1.5 mm tall. Sporotheca globose to obovate, erect, dull ochraceous to clay-coloured or olivaceous, 0.5–1.0 mm in diameter. Stalk furrowed, dark brown to black, usually <1.0 mm long. Hypothallus well-developed, contiguous for a group of sporangia, brown. Peridial net weak and easily detached, without thickened nodes. Calyculus deep but poorly defined; dictydine granules dark brown, irregular, 0.5–1.5 µm in diameter. Spores clay-coloured in mass, pallid by transmitted light, nearly smooth, 6–8 µm in diameter. Plasmodium lead-coloured.

Widely distributed in temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969) and also reported from Africa (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969), Australia (Mitchell 1995), and South America (Arambarri 1975). First reported from New Zealand by Rawson (1937), based on a specimen collected in Southland. Also known from Dunedin.

Decaying wood, especially that of conifers