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 Perichaena chrysosperma
SynonymsOphiotheca chrysosperma
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 sessile to subsessile sporangium (or sometimes forming a short plasmodiocarp), scattered to gregarious, subglobose or pulvinate to elongated, arcuate, annular, branched, or partly reticulate, ochraceous to dark reddish brown or nearly black, 0.2–0.5 mm in diameter and up to 1 mm long. Hypothallus colourless, often scanty. Stalk, when present, short, thick, dark. Peridium double, the outer layer subcartilaginous, sometimes marked by reticulate ridges, the inner layer membranous, thin and translucent, dehiscence irregular, areolate or, in globose and annular fruiting bodies, circumscissile. Capillitium variable in quantity, elastic when abundant, consisting of slender yellow filaments 2–4 µm in diameter, minutely to strongly spiny, with the spines up to 6 µm long. Spores bright yellow in mass, pale yellow by transmitted light, spiny, 8–10 µm in diameter. Plasmodium white upon emerging, becoming yellowish-brown, pinkish grey, or rose.
Habitat: Decaying wood and bark; also occurring on bark of living tree, dead leaves, and less commonly on the dung of herbivorous animals.
Distribution: osmopolitan (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969). First reported from New Zealand by Mitchell (1992), based on a specimen collected in Auckland.
Notes: The prominent spines on the capillitium distinguish this species from other members of the genus Perichaena. In moist chamber cultures, the “doughnut” shaped plasmodiocarps produced occasionally are distinctive.
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