Stemonitis splendens.
Eukaryota > Amoebozoa > Class Myxogastria > Order Stemonitidales > Family Stemonitidaceae.
Chocolate Tubes, common in Queensland are seen on rotting wood.
The plasmodial stage is a slimy white (yellow) layer of protoplasm.
Dense clusters of fruiting bodies (sporocarps) grow from it.
Fruiting bodies consist of a slender stalk with a spore containing sporangium on top.
The black stem is around 4 mm long and under 1 mm thick.
The dark purplish-brown sporangia are tubular with a rounded top.
They are 10 to 15 mm long and 1 to 2 mm wide.
Inside the sporangia is a mass of spores among fine threads (the capillitium).
The threads are attached to the columella which is an extension of the stalk into the spore sac.
The columella is stiff and extends almost to the top of the sporangium.
The spherical brown to reddish brown spores are covered in small warts.
J.F.
