PDD 3651

Fruiting body a sessile sporangium, gregarious to clustered, subglobose, flattened, pulvinate or occasionally slightly elongated, 0.8–2.0 mm in diameter. Hypothallus a thick, horny layer surrounding the sporangium, reddish brown. Peridium persistent, membranous, transparent, dull or more commonly with bluish, greenish or dark golden reflections, often wrinkled, firmly attached to the ends of the capillitium, dehiscence irregular. Columella absent. Capillitium dense, arising from the base of the sporangium, consisting of a network of branching and anastomosing hollow, colourless tubules with expanded, usually triangular, brown nodes. Spores black to purple-brown in mass, purple-brown to dusky brown by transmitted light, densely and uniformly spiny (the spines reaching about 0.7 µm in length), 13–16 µm in diameter. Plasmodium unknown.

Described originally from material collected in Europe (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969) and also known from Asia (Yamamoto 1998) and North America (Kowalski 1969). First reported from New Zealand by Mitchell (1992), based on a specimen from Wellington that had been collected in 1921.

Living plants and plant debris near the edges of melting snowbanks in alpine regions.

Kowalski (1975), Neubert et al. (2000).

This is probably the most common and widely distributed member of the genus Diacheopsis. It is restricted to alpine snowbank habitats, which is also the case for a number of other species in the genus, while several other species (including D. depressa) are predominantly lowland in their distribution.