Diderma subasteroides

This appeared on well-rotted wood in a suburban garden. In the second photo the white arrows point to unopened spore capsules, the upper red arrow to a columella and the lower red arrow to the varnish-like hypothallus on the woody substrate. The inset at the lower left shows a close view of a fruit body with the spore capsule yet to open. Alongside is a view of the lower surface of an open capsule, sitting on a small drop of potassium hydroxide. The scale bar is for the main photo, not the insets. In the third photo you see another fruit body with an unopened spore capsule. Here the hemispherical shape shows better. The white arrow on the left points to a columella and that on the right to a hypothallus. The large inset shows a number of brown spores, numerous mall lime granules and some of the capillitial threads (all in a potassium hydroxide mount). The other inset is a slightly larger view of a single spore. The spores ranged from 12.0 to 13.6 microns in diameter and all have a low, warty ornamentation.