DWM 3174

Fruiting body a sessile sporangium, scattered to gregarious, depressed pulvinate to elongated or subglobose, dark brown to dull black, 0.1–0.2 mm in diameter and up to three times as long as wide, total height not exceeding 0.25 mm. Peridium thin, translucent, yellow-brown by transmitted light, but coated with dark granular material that usually extends around the base of the sporangium, forming a dark rim about 0.05 mm wide, dehiscence by a longitudinal split, the edges curling inward after the spores are shed. Spores at first pale rose and then brown in mass, by transmitted light at first very pale rose and then brown, the walls thin, minutely spiny, 10–13 µm in diameter. Plasmodium hyaline, then brown.

This species was described originally from Europe (Nannenga-Bremekamp 1965) and has since been collected in eastern North America (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969). First reported from New Zealand by Mitchell (1992), based on specimens appearing on bark samples placed in moist chamber culture. The bark samples were collected in Auckland.

Fruiting body a sessile sporangium, scattered to gregarious, depressed pulvinate to elongated or subglobose, dark brown to dull black, 0.1–0.2 mm in diameter and up to three times as long as wide, total height not exceeding 0.25 mm. Peridium thin, translucent, yellow-brown by transmitted light, but coated with dark granular material that usually extends around the base of the sporangium, forming a dark rim about 0.05 mm wide, dehiscence by a longitudinal split, the edges curling inward after the spores are shed. Spores at first pale rose and then brown in mass, by transmitted light at first very pale rose and then brown, the walls thin, minutely spiny, 10–13 µm in diameter. Plasmodium hyaline, then brown.

Martin & Alexopoulos (1969), Nannenga-Bremekamp (1991), Lado & Pando (1997), Ing (1999).

The distinguishing feature of Licea marginata is the ring of peridial deposits found around the base of the sporangium.