None in PDD.

Fruiting body a stalked sporangium, gregarious in small clusters, 2–6 mm tall. Sporotheca cylindrical to elongated-ovate, blunt or slightly acuminate above, erect, violaceous-brown, up to 0.3 mm in diameter. Stalk black, shining, 0.5–2.0 mm tall, one-quarter to one-third the height of the entire sporangium. Hypothallus membranous, reddish brown, contiguous for a group of sporangia. Peridium fugacious. Columella reaching the apex of the sporotheca, giving rise to a delicate capillitium, the ultimate branches united with the small-meshed surface net that tends to fall away above. Spores bright in mass, pale lilac-brown by transmitted light, marked by a sharp reticulation of narrow bands connecting prominent warts, 6–7 µm in diameter. Plasmodium white.

Reported from widely scattered localities in North America and Europe but never common (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969). First reported from New Zealand by Rawson (1937), based on a specimen collected in South Canterbury.

Decaying wood and bark.

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

The combination of violaceous-brown sporangia and reticulate spores distinguish Stemonitis virginiensis