Comatricha (genus)

The genus Comatricha (Amaurochaetaceae, Stemonitales) was established by Preuss in 1851, and currently encompasses 41 species. It is characterized by having stalked sporophores, fibrous stalk at the base, globose or cylindrical sporotheca, capillitium forming a network of thin, dark and branched threads, appearing along the columella, generally without sharp free ends, with dark and globose spores.

Comatrichia sporangia are gregarious to crowded, stalked, 1-1.5 mm total height. Sporotheca broadly ellipsoidal to ovoid, 0.5 - 1.2 mm, lilac brown. Peridium is usually fugacious sometimes leaving small flakes or in some species a small collar around the stalk. Stalk 0.2 - 0.5 mm high, smooth, flattened and widening towards the base, consisting of intertwined fibres, blackish brown. Columella occurrs as a continuation of the stalk and concolorous, rostrate, reaching almost to the apex of the sporotheca where it sometimes becomes sinuous. Hypothallus membranous, hyaline, common to several sporangia. Capillitium dense, sinuous branched and anastomosed, without main branches, arising from the entire length of the columella, threads 1-2 µm wide, usually without pointed free ends, rarely forming a surface net, uniformly reddish brown. Spore-mass violaceous brown, light violaceous by Light Microscopy, 9.0- 11.0 µm in diam, with abundant, regularly distributed warts.