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 Comatricha nigra
SynonymsStemonitis nigra
BiostatusPresent in region - Indigenous. Non endemic
Article: Stephenson, S.L. (2003). Myxomycetes of New Zealand. Fungi of New Zealand. Ngā Harore o Aotearoa 3: xiv + 238 p. Hong Kong: Fungal Diversity Press.
Description: Fruiting body a stalked sporangium, scattered to gregarious, 1-8 mm tall. Sporotheca globose to ovate (rarely short cylindrical), erect, black or dark brown, up to 0.6 mm in diameter. Stalk black, hairlike, relatively long, usually two to six times the diameter of the sporotheca. Hypothallus membranous, scanty, red. Peridium fugacious. Columella reaching to the middle or the upper part of the sporotheca, there merging into the capillitium. Capillitium an intricate network of slender, flexuous, branching and anastomosing purplish brown threads. Spores black in mass, dark violaceous by transmitted light, faintly warted to nearly smooth, 9–10 µm in diameter. Plasmodium colourless and then white.
Habitat: Decaying wood; also appearing on tree bark in moist chamber cultures
Distribution: Cosmopolitan (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969). First reported from New Zealand by Cheesman & Lister (1915), based on a specimen cited without giving a specific locality. Also known from Auckland, North Canterbury, South Canterbury, Otago Lakes, Dunedin, and Stewart Island.
Notes: In the field, the combination of a small globose sporotheca on a long, slender stalk makes this an easy species to recognise. Specimens appearing in moist chamber cultures are more difficult to characterize and presumably represent a compex of forms that intergrade morphologically.
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