DWM 5483

Fruiting body a stalked sporangium, solitary, 0.4–0.5 mm total height. Sporotheca globose or hemispherical, flattened below, dark brown, 0.2 mm in diameter. Stalk with a broad, fibrous base, dark, slender, tapering upward. Hypothallus discoid, thin, reddish brown. Peridium fugacious. Columella reaching about the centre of the sporotheca. Capillitium consisting of two or sometimes three slender, black branches arising from the tip of the columella and forking three or four times without anastomosing. Spores brown in mass, grey by transmitted light, globose, prominantly spiny (the spines up to 1 µm long), 10–13 µm in diameter. Plasmodium white.

Known from Europe and North America (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969, Ing 1999). Not reported in print as occurring in New Zealand but appearing in a moist chamber culture prepared with bark samples from Nothofagus fusca. The samples were collected in Nelson.

Bark of living trees.

Martin & Alexopoulos (1969), Ing (1999).

The conspicuous spines on the spores and the lax capillitium are the distinguishing features of this apparently rare species