None in PDD

Fruiting body a sessile (or rarely short-stalked) sporangium or sometimes plasmodiocarpous, scattered to gregarious, 0.3–1.0 mm in diameter. Hypothallus membranous, dark brown or brownish purple. Peridium consisting of two layers, the outer layer, when moist, thick, gelatinous, hyaline, sometimes more or less encrusted with olivaceous granules, olivaceous or purple brown, glossy, shrinking and becoming horny when dry, the inner layer membranous, firm, colourless, dehiscence irregular. Capillitium a network of hyaline, brown or purple threads arising from the base of the sporangium, 2–4 µm thick at the base, very slender and colourless at the tips, often surrounded by a broken hyaline sheath or bearing dark accretions. Spores black in mass, smoky grey by transmitted light, spiny, 11.0–12.5 µm in diameter. Plasmodium purplish brown.

Widely distributed in Europe and also known from Asia and North America (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969). First reported from New Zealand by Rawson (1937), based on a specimen collected in South Canterbury.

Decaying wood with a cover of bryophytes present; also bark of living trees.

Martin & Alexopoulos (1969), Nannenga-Bremekamp (1991), Neubert et al. (2000), Ing (1999).

The gelatinous outer layer of the peridium, within which the remainder of the fruiting body appears to be embedded, is distinctive. This species is almost invariably associated with bryophytes.