Comatricha laxa

Comatricha laxa Rost. Monog. 201. 1874
Lamproderma Ellisiana Cooke, Ann. Lye. N. Y. 11: 397. 1877.
Comatricha macrosperma Racib. Rozpr. Akad. Umiej. 12: 76. 1884.
Comatricha Ellisiana Ell. & Ev. N. Am. Fungi 2696. 1891.
Comatricha Sommerfeltii A. Blytt, Forh. Vid.-Selsk. Christiania 1892 2 : 8. 1892,
Stemonitis laxa Massee, Monog. 79. 1892.
Comatricha Ellisii Morgan, Jour. Cine. Soc. Nat. Hist. 16: 133. 1894.
Sporangia scattered or gregarious, stipitate, subglobose, ovate or short-cylindric, erect, dusky purplish-brown, their total height 1-3.5 mm.; stalk short, usually less than half the total height, tapering from an expanded base; columella erect, rigid, usually reaching nearly to the summit, rarely shorter and forking in globose forms; capillitium open, arising from all parts of the columella, the primary branches more or less horizontal, with few anastomoses and many short free tips ; spores dark purplish-brown in mass, grayish-brown or lilaceous by transmitted light, minutely war ted, 7-11 /x in diameter; Plasmodium waterywhite.
Type locality: Germany.
Habitat: Dead wood and twigs and on bark in cultures. Distribution : Throughout North America ; Europe ; Asia.