DWM 3053B, 3056B, 3125B

Fruiting body a stalked sporangium, scattered, 0.5–1.5 mm tall. Sporotheca globose, erect, at first black but becoming brown, 0.1–0.4 mm in diameter. Stalk black, expanded at the base and tapering toward, slender, straight or curved, 0.4–1.0 mm tall. Hypothallus discoid, brown, sometimes granular, often inconspicuous. Peridium persisting for a short period but then completely fugacious. Columella slender, reaching about the centre of the sporotheca and then ending abruptly. Capillitium a scanty tuft of simple or forking purplish brown threads, free or with a few anastomoses, slender at the base but with many of the tips greatly expanded. Spores dark reddish-brown in mass, dark lilac-grey in transmitted light, densely covered with fine warts, 12–13 µm in diameter. Plasmodium colourless.

Widely distributed in Europe (Ing 1999) and also known from Asia (Yamamoto 1998) and North America (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969). First reported from New Zealand by Mitchell (1992), based on specimens appearing in moist chambers prepared with bark samples collected in Bay of Plenty, Taupo, and North Canterbury.

Bark of living trees.

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

The conspicuously expanded tips of the capillitial threads are the distinguishing feature of this species. It has been recorded from the bark of many different kinds of trees and appears to be relatively common under even fairly acidic conditions (Ing 1999).