PDD16126, 16156, 49870.

Fruiting body a sessile sporangium (or sometimes plasmodiocarpous), gregarious, irregularly subglobose to ovoid or slightly elongated, 0.4–0.8 mm in diameter. Hypothallus inconspicuous. Peridium consisting of a single layer, membranous, often without conspicuous deposits of lime but usually with scattered granules present, greenish-grey, olive or yellowish, glossy, dehiscence irregular. Columella absent. Capillitium consisting of bright yellow angular lime nodes connected by slender hyaline threads. Spores black in mass, pale violet-brown by transmitted light, minutely warted, 6–8 µm in diameter. Plasmodium yellow.

Recorded from Europe and North America (Ing 1999) but apparently uncommon. Reported from New Zealand by Mitchell (1992), based on specimens from Buller and Westland.

Leaf litter and other types of plant debris.

Ing (1999).

Some authors have considered Physarum obscurum as a variety of P. virescens, but the fruiting bodies of the former are larger and not heaped (the single most diagnostic feature of P. virescens), and the spores are smaller.