Stemonitis axifera

Description

Stemonitis axifera is a species of slime mold. It fruits in clusters on dead wood and has distinctive tall reddish-brown sporangia, supported on slender stalks. The erect, stalked cylindrical sporangia are arranged into bundles or clusters. Each sporangium is supported by a thin, shining, black stalk. The bright rusty brown color of mature sporangia lightens to a pale brown after the spores have been dispersed.

This slime mold fungus requires about 20 hours to finish making its fruit bodies. Of this, eight hours are needed for induction of the sporangia and the development of the stalk and the columella, six hours more for the sporocarps to produce pigment and mature, and an additional six until the spores are discharged.

Mushroom Identification

1. Sporangia

   Sporangia narrowly cylindrical, in dense and often large clusters 10 to 50 mm in diameter, stalked, usually curved, rusty brown, total height 7 to 20 mm. With .individual Sporangium are 0.2 to 0.3 in diameter.

2. Stalk

   Black, 3 to 7 mm. high, rising from a membranous hypothallus.

3. Columella

   Ending below the summit of the sporangium.

4. Capillitium

   With a smooth and usually close surface-net, connected with the columella by few stout branches, and composed of rather firm threads bounding rounded meshes, which are usually small although varying in size.

5. Spores

   Brown 5 to 7 µm in diameter and almost smooth (minutely punctuate).

6. Plasmodium

   White, rarely pale yellow.

7. Habitat

   On deadwood.

8. Distribution

   Cosmopolitan, known from Northland, Auckland, Coromandel, Taranaki, Taupo, Wanganui, Wellington, Westland, South Canterbury, Southland, and Dunedin.

History

The species was first described as Trichia axifera by Jean Baptiste François Pierre Bulliard in 1791. Thomas Huston MacBride transferred it to the genus Stemonitis in 1889. Stemonitis fasciculata and Stemonitis smithii are synonyms.

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Dr. Lorne Stobbs (Stobbsl) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Ian Dodd (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Ian Dodd (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 4 - Author: Lebrac (CC BY-SA 3.0, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic)