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 Craterium obovatum
SynonymsBadhamia obovata
Diderma hookeri
Lamproderma hookeri
Chondrioderma hookeri
Diachea hookeri
Badhamia rubiginosa
Physarum rubiginosum
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 to occasionally subsessile sporangium, scattered to gregarious, 1–2 mm tall. Sporotheca obovoid, dark purplish to greying brown, 0.5–0.7 mm in diameter. Stalk erect, cylindrical or flared basally, smooth or rugulose, reddish brown, more or less stuffed with whitish lime, one-half or more the total height, usually continued inside the sporangium for up to two-thirds the height of the sporotheca as a clavate, fusiform, or cylindric columella. Hypothallus continuous and membranous, colourless, iridescent, or reticulate, thin, brown, or discoid. Peridium membranous, brittle, light purplish brown, usually paler and more or less calcareous above, more persistent below and often clearly delimited as a calyculus. Capillitium dense, radiating from the columella, occasionally forming a pseudocolumella, white or pale brown, sometimes with a few hyaline connecting filaments. Spores dark brown in mass, dark violaceus brown by transmitted light, warted-reticulate or reticulate, 11–17 µm in diameter. Plasmodium yellow.
Habitat: Dead leaves, various types of plant debris, decaying wood, and bryophytes.
Distribution: North America, South America, Europe, and Asia (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969). First reported (as Diderma hookeri) from New Zealand by Berkeley (1855), based on a specimen collected by Colenso in Northland. Also known from Westland.
Notes: In some treatments of the myxomycetes, Craterium obovatum is listed as Badhamia obovata, and there is little question that this species has many of the features generally associated with members of the genus Badhamia.
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