Physarum stellatum

Physarum stellatum (Massee) G. W. Martin,
Mycologia 39: 461. 1947.
Tilmadoche columbina Rost. Monog. Append. 13. 1876.
Tilmadoche compacta Wingate, Proc. Acad. Phila. 1889: 48. 1889.
Lepidoderma stellatum Massee; Cooke, Grevillea 17: 60. 1889.
Didymium Barteri Massee, Monog. 231. 1892.
Physarum compactum Lister, Mycet. 44.^ 1894. Not P. compactum Ehrenb. 1818.
Physarum columbinum Sturgis, Mycologia 8: 201. 1916. Not P. columbinum Pers. 1795.
Physarum Wingatense Macbr. N. Am. Slime-Moulds ed. 2. 72. 1922.
Sporangia globose, 0.4—0.6 mm. in diameter, stipitate, gregarious, sometimes closely so, erect or nodding, gray, brownish-gray, or bronze; peridium thin, metallic, splitting at maturity in floriform fashion into 6-12 segments; stalk calcareous, white or yellowish, often shading to fuscous or black below, rather long, tapering upward; hypSthallus inconspicuous; columella lacking; capillitium delicate, white or colorless, usually radiating from a central nucleus, the extra-nuclear nodes few, small, fusiform; spores brown in mass, pale violet-brown by transmitted light, delicately war ted, 8-10 /z in diameter; Plasmodium light gray.
Type locality: Venezuela.
Habitat: Dead wood and bark.
Distribution: Temperate and tropical North America; South America; Africa; Asia.