PDD 16113, 16702, 75463

Fruiting body a stalked (or sometimes sessile) sporangium, gregarious, up to 1 mm tall. Sporotheca subglobose or depressed, deeply umbilicate below, white or grey, 0.5–1.0 mm in diameter. Peridium firm, dull brown or black, more or less densely covered with white lime crystals. Stalk usually short, stout, rarely up to two-thirds the total height, dull brown or black, often completely immersed in the umbilicate base of the sporotheca. Columella prominent, hemispherical, dark or pallid, calcareous. Capillitium consisting of sparingly branched, pale to purple-brown, sinuous threads, these varying from slender to robust, often bearing dark, nodular thickenings. Spores black in mass, dull purplish brown by transmitted light, strongly warted or spiny, 10–14 µm in diameter. Plasmodium colourless or dull grey.

Considered to be cosmopolitan by Martin & Alexopoulos (1969) and sometimes abundant in the tropics. First reported (as D. farinaceum) from New Zealand by Lister & Lister (1905), based on specimens from South Canterbury and Stewart Island. Also known from Auckland, Coromandel, Fiordland, and Mackenzie.

Decaying wood, twigs, and dead leaves

Martin & Alexopoulos (1969), Nannenga-Bremekamp (1991), Neubert et al. (1995), Ing (1999).

The distinguishing characteristics of this species are the robust, deeply umbilicate sporotheca and the short dark stalk. It sometimes occurs in the same types of ecological situations as Didymium squamulosum. However, the sporotheca of D. squamulosum is globose to discoid and the stalk is white