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 Licea pygmaea
SynonymsLicea pusilla var. pygmaea
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, globose to pulvinate, somewhat angular, brownish black to black, 0.05–0.4 mm in diameter. Peridium thick, tough, somewhat waxy when wet but becoming cartilaginous upon drying, opaque, with prominent ridges, these breaking apart into angular plates with a row of warts along the margins, plates becoming petaloid or widely reflexed in older specimens. Spores black in mass, greyish to greenish yellow by transmitted light, minutely and densely spiny or warted, with a diffuse thinner area on one side, 12–13 µm in diameter. Plasmodium pale brown.
Habitat: Bark of living trees.
Distribution: Reported from widely scattered localities in North America and Europe (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969). First reported from New Zealand by Mitchell (1992), based on specimens appearing on bark samples of Nothofagus sp. placed in moist chamber culture. The bark samples were collected in Otago Lakes.
Notes: This species is sometimes considered as a variety of Licea pusilla but has smaller spores.
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