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 Didymium clavus
SynonymsPhysarum clavus
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, scattered to gregarious, up to 1 mm tall. Sporotheca discoid, often umbilicate above, 0.5–1 mm in diameter. Stalk tapering upward, longitudinally striate, dark brown or black, paler at top, sometimes so short as to be contained within the base, the sporangium then appearing sessile. Hypothallus membranous, discoid to venulose, black. Peridium membranous, more or less covered with lime crystals above, greyish white or dark when lime is scanty, thickened, brown, and limeless on the under side. Columella represented by the thickened discoid to dome-like base of the sporotheca. Capillitium abundant, delicate, the threads pale purple-brown or nearly colourless, sparsely branched. Spores black in mass, pale violaceous brown by transmitted light, nearly smooth, 6–7 µm in diameter. Plasmodium grey or colourless.
Habitat: Leaf litter and other types of plant debris; occasionally occurring on dead wood or on bark in moist chamber cultures.
Distribution: Recorded from localities throughout the world and possibly cosmopolitan (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969, Ing 1999). First reported from New Zealand by Mitchell (1992), based on specimens from Buller and South Canterbury.
Notes: This is a distinctive species and can be recognised by the combination of a discoid sporotheca on a black stipe. Diderma hemisphericum is morphologically similar but has a very different type of peridium
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