On rotten wood. Wellington (Mt. Travers).

PDD 3602, 5042, 48195

Fruiting body a stalked sporangium, fasciculate in small- or medium-sized clusters, 7–15 mm tall. Sporotheca cylindrical, acuminate, erect, bright rusty brown, becoming pale brown as the spores are dispersed, 0.2–0.3 mm in diameter. Stalk cylindrical, smooth, black, shining, 3–7 mm long. Hypothallus membranous, shining, colourless to brown. Peridium fugacious. Columella branching freely and evenly, dissipated below the apex of the sporotheca, the ultimate branchlets united into a delicate, small-meshed surface net. Spores bright reddish brown in mass, very pale reddish brown to almost colourless by transmitted light, nearly smooth or very minutely punctate, 5–7 µm in diameter. Plasmodium white or pale to bright yellow.

Cosmopolitan (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969). First reported (as Stemonitis ferruginea) from New Zealand by Berkeley (1855), based on a specimen collected by W. Colenso in Northland. Also known from Auckland, Taranaki, Taupo, Wanganui, Wellington (Cooke 1879), Westland, South Canterbury, Dunedin, Southland, and Stewart Island (Lister & Lister 1905).

Decaying wood

Martin & Alexopoulos (1969) Nannenga-Bremekamp (1991), Stephenson & Stempen (1994), Ing (1999), Neubert et al. (2000).

This is a very common species of Stemonitis and usually can be distinguished on the basis of the bright rusty brown colour alone. Stemonitis smithii, a closely related species, has smaller sporangia (usually no more than 6 mm tall) and smaller spores (4–5 µm in diameter).