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 Comatricha vineatilis
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, 1.5–2.0 mm tall. Sporotheca subcylindrical, with a rounded apex, slightly wider at the base, dark brown, up to 0.5 mm in diameter. Stalk black, opaque, attenuate upwards, 0.5 mm long. Hypothallus discoid to contiguous for a group of sporangia, membranous, pale brown. Peridium fugacious. Columella ending just below the apex of the sporotheca. Capillitium more or less perpendicular to the columella and arising along its whole length, dark brown, flexuose, branching 3–5 times, with few anastomoses except just below the periphery, where the peripheral threads form short, outward-pointing, sometimes forked branchlets. Spores medium-dark brown in mass, light brown in transmitted light, very densely and minutely warted, with some indistinct clusters of warts, 9–10 µm in diameter. Plasmodium unknown.
Habitat: Bark of living trees.
Distribution: This species was described originally from Europe (Nannenga-Bremekamp (1989). Not reported in print as occurring in New Zealand but appearing in a moist chamber culture prepared with bark samples of Metrosideros umbellata collected on Stewart Island.
Notes: Representatives of the genus Comatricha commonly appear in moist chamber cultures prepared with samples of bark from living trees, and several species are known only from this microhabitat. Comatricha vineatilis appears to be one example of this special ecological group of myxomycetes. The collection from New Zealand apparently represents the first record of the species from the Southern Hemisphere.
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