DWM 5493.

 Fruiting body a stalked sporangium, scattered or gregarious, total height 0.5–2.0 mm. Sporotheca subglobose to subcylindrical, erect, deep purple to purplish bronze or reddish purple, shining with a metallic luster, 0.1–0.3 mm in diameter. Stalk slender, tapering upward, concolourous or darker, usually two-thirds to four-fifths up the total height. Hypothallus discoid, membranous. Peridial net with large meshes and a few flat, widened and irregular nodes, without free ends. Calyculus prominent, occupying up to two-thirds the total height of the sporotheca; dictydine granules dark purple, 1.0–1.5 µm in diameter. Spores bright violet in mass, lilac by transmitted light, minutely warted, 7–8 µm in diameter. Plasmodium purplish black.

 Apparently cosmopolitan (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969) and sometimes rather common in tropical regions of the world (Stephenson, unpubl. data). Not recorded in print as occurring in New Zealand but appearing in moist chamber culture on a bark sample of Dacrydium cupressinum collected in Northland.

 Dead wood, bark of living trees, and leaf litter.

 Martin & Alexopoulos (1969), Neubert et al. (1993), Stephenson & Stempen (1994), Lado & Pando (1997).

 The small size, deep purple colour, and deep calyculus make this an easy species to recognise.