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 Licea minima
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 sessile sporangium, scattered to gregarious, subglobose to pulvinate or angular, umber or reddish brown to nearly black, 0.2–0.4 mm in diameter. Peridium opaque, with prominent ridges, these breaking apart into angular plates with dotted margins, plates becoming petaloid or widely reflexed in older specimens. Spores dark reddish brown in mass, smoky ferruginous to olivaceous brown by transmitted light, the spore wall thinner and paler on one side, minutely warted, 10–12 µm in diameter. Plasmodium watery drab or grey, turning yellowish or rosaceous brown as the fruiting bodies are formed.
Habitat: Decaying coniferous wood; also appearing on bark from coniferous trees placed in moist chamber cultures.
Distribution: Probably cosmopolitan (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969) but apparently less common in the tropics. First reported from New Zealand by Mitchell (1992), based on a specimen appearing on bark of Nothofagus sp. placed in a moist chamber culture. The bark was collected in Otago Lakes.
Notes: This is one of the few species of Licea that is fairly easy to detect in the field. There are several other species of Licea that possess a peridium consisting of prominent platelets with clearly distinct lines of dehiscence. Only two of these (L. pusilla and L. pygmaea) are known from New Zealand. The former has appreciably larger spores than L. minima, while L. pygmaea can be distinguished on the basis of spore colour (reddish brown in L. minima and black in L. pygmaea).
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