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 Symphytocarpus amaurochaetoides
SynonymsStemonitis fusca var. flaccida
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 pseudoaethalium consisting of partially merged sporangia, black or sometimes dark brown or dark purple-brown, 5–50 mm in diameter and 5 mm high. Hypothallus thin and raised around the bases of the merged sporangia into an irregular net of narrow, low ridges, colourless or pale brown, with a silvery shine. Peridium completely fugacious, not leaving any plates adhering to the capillitium. Columella absent or irregular and sometimes split, often present or absent within different parts of the same pseudoaethalium. Capillitium consisting of a system of threads, these thick and dark, forming a wide meshed reticulum with some expanded portions and with short, stiff, free ends at the periphery. Spores dark brown in mass, lilac-brown in transmitted light, banded-spiny reticulate, 8–10 µm in diameter. Plasmodium white.
Habitat: Decaying wood, usually that from broadleaf trees
Distribution: Reported from Europe (Ing 1999) but uncommon. First reported (as Stemonitis fusca var. flaccida) from New Zealand by Lister & Lister (1905), based on a specimen from Dunedin.
Notes: This species has been considered as a variety of Stemonitis fusca in some taxonomic treatments of the myxomycetes, and the spores of Symphytocarpus amaurochaetoides and S. fusca are very similar.
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