Arcyria cinerea

Fungus / parasite
colony of Gliocladium anamorph of Nectriopsis sporangiicola parasitises sporangium of Arcyria cinerea

Fungus / parasite
colony of Verticillium anamorph of Verticillium rexianum parasitises sporangium of 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.