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 Erionema aureum
SynonymsFuligo aurea
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, sessile or pendant on a slender stalk, simple or branched, terete or flattened, often anastomosing and then forming a 3-dimensional network. Stalk, when present, membranous, strand-like, merging with the hypothallus. Hypothallus membranous, usually inconspicuous. Peridium consisting of a single layer, pale yellow or olive specked with yellow, usually strongly calcareous but lime sometimes scanty. Capillitium elastic, composed of colourless tubules, the junctions mostly limeless but bearing a few yellow fusiform lime nodes, expanding to several times its original size upon breaking up of the peridium. Spores black in mass, pale violaceus brown by transmitted light, minutely punctate, 7–8 µm in diameter. Plasmodium colourless to chrome yellow.
Habitat: Decaying wood.
Distribution: Known from scattered localities in eastern Asia (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969) and apparently very rare elsewhere in the world. Farr (1976) noted one collection from South America. Reported from New Zealand by Mitchell (1992), based on a specimen collected in Wellington in 1919.
Notes: Fruiting of Erionema aureum sometimes resemble small aethalia of Fuligo septica in which the cortex is sparse or lacking, and Yamamoto (1998) proposed that it be transferred to the genus Fuligo, as F. aurea.
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