CHSC 50011

Fruiting body a sessile sporangium or sometimes plasmodiocarpous, densely gregarious to crowded, depressed and pulvinate, angled from mutual pressure, 0.4-0.6 mm in diameter, occasionally slightly elongated and then reaching 2 mm in length. Hypothallus membranous, brown, encircling the fruiting body. Peridium persistent, thin, membranous, iridescent with blue, purple and green metallic colours, firmly attached to the ends of the capillitium, dehiscence irregular. Columella absent. Capillitium abundant, delicate, arising from the base of the fruiting body, composed of freely branching and anastomosing, colourless, slender, flexuose threads. Spores dark violet-brown in mass, pale violet-brown by transmitted light, minutely spiny, 9–10 µm in diameter. Plasmodium unknown.

An apparently very rare species described originally from Asia. First reported from New Zealand by Stagg (1982), based on a specimen collected in Fiordland.

Leaf litter and decaying wood

Thind & Lakhanpal (1968), Kowalski (1975).

The specimen upon which the New Zealand record is based was the second collection of a species previously reported only from the type locality. The collection consists of about 20 well-developed sporangia.