Arcyria cinerea

Arcyria cinerea (Bull.) Pers. Syn. Fung. 184. 1801
Trichia cinerea Bull. Hist. Champ. Fr. 120. 1791.
Stemonitis cinerea J. F. Gmel. Syst. Nat. 2: 1467. 1791.
Arcyria albida Pers. Neues Mag. Bot. 1: 90. 1794.
Stemonitis glauca Trent, in Roth, Catalecta Bot. 1: 221. 1797.
Stemonitis digitata Schw, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. II. 4: 260. 1832.
Arcyria trichioides Corda, Ic. Fung. 2: 23. 1838.
Arcyria Leprieurii Mont. Ann. Sci. Nat. IV. 3: 141. 1855.
Arcyria bicolor Berk. & Curt.; Berk. Jour. Linn. Soc. 10: 349. 1868.
Arcyria pallida Berk. & Curt.; Berk. Grevillea 2: 67. 1873.
Arcyria digitata Rost. Monog. 274. 1875.
Arcyria stricta Rost. Monog. Append. 36. 1876.
Arcyria Friesii Berk. & Br. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. IV. 17: 140. 1876.
Comatricha alba Schulzer, Oesterr. Bot. Zeits. 27: 167. 1877.
Arcyria Cookei Massee, Monog. 154. 1892.
Arcyria tenuis Schroet.; P. Henn. Hedwigia 35: 207. 1896.
Sporangia stipitate, scattered, gregarious, or united by their stalks into clusters of 2-20 or more, ovoid or subcylindric, rarely broadly ovate, 0.1-0.8 mm. in diameter, 0.3-4 mm. tall, pale gray or drab to pallid-ochraceous, rarely greenish; peridium fugacious except for fragments which not rarely remain attached to the expanded capillitium; calyculus concolorous, rather small, sulcate below; stalk slender, concolorous or darker, often nearly black, crowded with spore-like cells, more or less fused with others in clustered developments; capillitium firmly attached to the cup, the meshes close, the threads 2-4 /* in diameter, wider below, densely spinulose; spores pale gray or yellowish in mass, colorless by transmitted light, with a few scattered, inconspicuous warts, 6-8 ft in diameter; Plasmodium white, less commonly gray or yellowish.
Typb locality: France.
Habitat: Dead wood, plant debris or the dung of herbivorous animals.
Distribution: Throughout North America; cosmopolitan.