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 Cribraria microcarpa
SynonymsDictydium microcarpum
BiostatusPresent in region - Indigenous. Non endemic
Images (click to enlarge)
Owner: J.A. Cooper | 
Caption: Sporangia of Cribraria microcarpa. Each sporangium is approximately 3.5 mm tall.
Owner: S.L. Stephenson |
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, scattered to gregarious, 3–4 mm or more tall. Sporotheca globose, usually nodding, reddish ochraceous, 0.1–0.3 mm in diameter. Stalk slender, dark purplish brown, usually ten or more times as long as the diameter of the sporotheca. Hypothallus inconspicuous. Peridial net regular, present both above and below, the meshes of net mostly rectangular, the nodes rounded, strongly thickened, 10–20 µm in diameter. Calyculus absent or represented by a small basal disk; dictydine granules dark purple-brown, 1–2 µm in diameter. Spores ochraceous in mass, pale by transmitted light, minutely spiny, 5–7 µm in diameter. Plasmodium at first colourless, becoming white and then dingy brown.
Habitat: Decaying wood, often that of conifers; also appearing on leaf litter and other types of plant debris placed in moist chamber cultures.
Distribution: Apparently cosmopolitan (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969) and relatively common in tropical forests (Stephenson, unpub. data). First reported from New Zealand by Mitchell (1992), based on a specimen from South Canterbury.
Notes: This is the most common species of Cribraria with small nodding sporangia and very long, delicate stalks.
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