Fruiting body a stalked or sessile sporangium, plasmodiocarp, or aethalium. Stalk, when present, ranging from short and stout to relatively long and slender, with or without lime. Hypothallus inconspicuous to extensive, calcareous or without lime. Peridium usually with lime present. Capillitium forming a network, calcareous or very rarely almost limeless, typically composed of calcareous tubules of a nearly uniform diameter (a condition referred to as a badhamioid) or thickened calcareous nodes connected by slender, hyaline threads (a condition referred to as a physaroid), less commonly a combination of the two types. Spores in mass black, deep violaceous or dark grey