Comatricha nigra

Comatricha nigra (Pers.) Schroet. Krypt.-Fl
Schles. 3 1 : 118. 1885.
Stemonitis nigra Pers.; J. F. Gmel. Syst. Nat. 2: 1467. 1791. Stemonitis atrofusca Pers. Neues Mag. Bot. 1: 91. 1794. Stemonitis ovata Pers. Syn. Fung. 189. 1801. Trichia mucoriformis Schum. Enum. PL Saell. 2: 211. 1803. Stemonitis oblonga Fries, Syst. Myc. 3: 159. 1829. Stemonitis obtusata Fries, Syst. Myc. 3: 160. 1829. Comatricha obtusata Preuss, Linnaea 24: 141. 1851. Comatricha Friesiana Rost. Monog. 199. 1874.
Comatricha Persoonii C. gracilis Celak. f. Arch. Nat. Land. Bohmen 7 5 : 51. 1893.
Sporangia scattered or gregarious, stipitate, globose, ovate or short-cylindric, erect, dark
i
brown, becoming ferruginous when blown, their total height 2-8 mm.; stalk black, hair-like, relatively long, usually 2—6 times the length of the sporangium ; hypothallus scanty, red, sometimes lacking; columella reaching to the middle or the upper part of the sporangium, there merging into the capillitium; capillitium intricate, the threads slender, flexuous, branching and anastomosing freely and forming a dense net ; spores black in mass, dark violaceous by transmitted light, faintly warted to nearly smooth, 7-1 1 /j, in diameter; Plasmodium colorless, then white.
Type locality: Germany.
Habitat: Dead wood.
Distribution: Throughout North America; cosmopolitan.