11. Badhamia utricularis (Bull.) Berk.
- 1791. Sphaerocarpus utricularis Bull., Champ., p. 128, t. 417, Fig. 1.
- 1826. Physarum utriculare Chev., Fl. Paris, I., p. 337.
- 1829. Physarum utriculare Fries, Syst. Myc., III., p. 139.
- 1852. Badhamia utricularis (Bull.) Berk., Tr. Linn. Soc., XXI., p. 153.
Sporangia clustered, spherical or ovoid, large, sessile or mounted on long, thin, strand-like stalks, blue-gray, violet-iridescent or cinereous, smooth or more often rugulose; the stipes when present poorly differentiated, as if thread-like filaments and strips of the plasmodium, often branched and always reclining or even prostrate; hypothallus none; capillitium a large-meshed open network of rather slender tubules, the nodes unequally developed, white with the enclosed lime; spores not strictly adherent though not without some tendency to stick together, delicately warted, bright violet-brown, 10–12 µ.
This species resembles B. capsulifera, but is distinguished by a more strongly rugulose less calcareous peridium and a more profuse development of filamentous stipes, but especially by the character of the spores. The spores of the present species while inclined, when mounted in a liquid, to stay together, nevertheless do not coalesce in heaps as in the related species, nor do they show any differentiation in the episporic markings, these being uniform over the entire spore.
This is one of the finest and perhaps the most beautiful species of this fine genus. It is a forest species, generally to be found on trunks of fallen Populus or Tilia where the fine soft gray colonies often spread for several inches along the ridges and in crevices of the bark.
Colorado (Bethel); Mississippi valley and east.
12. Badhamia capsulifera (Bull.) Berkeley.
- 1791. Sphaerocarpus capsulifer Bull., Champ., p. 139, t. 470, Fig. 2.
- 1801. Physarum hyalinum Pers., Syn. Meth. Fung., p. 170.
- 1852. Badhamia capsulifera Berk., Tr. Lin. Soc., XXI., p. 153.
- 1852. Badhamia hyalina Berk., Tr. Lin. Soc., XXI., p. 153.
- 1875. Badhamia hyalina (Pers.) Rost., Mon., p. 139.
- 1875. Badhamia capsulifera (Bull.) Rost., Mon., p. 141.
- 1894. Badhamia hyalina Lister, Mycetozoa, p. 30.
- 1911. Badhamia capsulifera Lister, Mycetozoa, 2nd ed., p. 31.
Sporangia clustered or gregarious, sessile or sometimes stipitate, globose or obovoid, gray or greenish white, snow-white when empty; the peridium thin, translucent; the stipe, when present, as in B. utricularis, although generally shorter and better developed, yellow or straw colored; capillitium a very loose, open network of white, lime-filled tubules, not much expanded at the nodes; columella none; spore-mass purplish-brown; spores adhering in clusters of five or six to twenty or more, globose, but affected somewhat by mutual pressure, rough throughout, the exposed surface in the cluster, more distinctly warted, 10–12 µ.
This is Badhamia hyalina (Pers.) Berk., Rost., Mon., p. 139; but Rostafinski himself admits that the two species, here united, as he defined them, are very much alike, having "the same spores and capillitium", differing in the form of the sporangium, an inconstant feature. Bulliard's name has precedence; his descriptions of this and the preceding species are remarkable.