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 Didymium serpula
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 plasmodiocarp, thin, dark grey or greyish-white, flat, 2–8 mm long or wide (but sometimes even larger), 0.10–0.15 mm thick, sometimes perforated. Hypothallus inconspicuous. Peridium membranous, covered with various amounts of white, stellate, or sometimes less regular, lime crystals. Columella absent. Capillitium consisting of slender, yellow-brown threads attached to conspicuous, subglobose vesicles, these 30–50 µm in diameter, filled with yellow granular material. Spores brown in mass, pale violet-brown by transmitted light, minutely warted, 8–11 µm in diameter. Plasmodium yellow.[
Habitat: Leaf litter and other types of plant debris
Distribution: Known from scattered localities in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969, Mitchell 1995, Yamamoto 1998). Not reported in print as occurring in New Zealand but represented by a specimen collected in Westland.
Notes: This apparently rather rare species is easily recognized on the basis of the very flat plasmodiocarps and the conspicuous vesicles associated with the threads of the capillitium
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