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 Stemonitis pallida
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, closely gregarious in large groups or in small gregarous clusters, 2–6 mm tall. Sporotheca cylindrical, rather slender, somewhat obtuse, erect, dusky drab to violet-brown, becoming paler as the spores disappear, 0.2 mm in diameter. Stalk of medium length, one-third or a little more of the height of the entire sporangium, dark reddish or purplish brown, polished. Hypothallus membranous, brown or iridescent, discoid or contiguous for a group of sporangia. Peridium fugacious. Columella reaching almost to the apex of sporotheca where it becomes dispersed and merges into the capillitium. Capillitium dense, the tips fusing with the close-meshed surface net which tends to be fugacious above. Spores dark brown in mass, pale lilaceous brown by transmitted light, minutely punctate, 6.5–7.5 µm in diameter. Plasmodium white or greenish yellow.
Habitat: Decaying wood.
Distribution: Reported from eastern North America, Europe, and Asia (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969). First reported from New Zealand by Rawson (1937), based on specimens collected in South Canterbury and Southland.
Notes: Stemonitis pallida shares a number of features in common with both S. flavogenita and S. herbatica. It differs from the latter in the substrate upon which fruiting usually occurs (decaying wood rather than living plants and litter) and in having angular meshes in the surface net (in S. herbatica the meshes tend to be rounded). Stemonitis pallida lacks the numerous membranous expansions in the capillitium, which is characteristic of S. flavogenita.
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