(Pers.) Rost.
SPORANGIA: Total height 2 to 3 mm. globose, ellipsoid, or obovoid, gregarious, stalked, erect, 0.5 to 1 mm. diam., purplish black with iridescent blue or purple reflections, or brassy;
PERIDIUM: membranous, persistent, purplish in the lower part, occasionally mottled with darker shades.
STALK: cylindrical, straight, 1.5 to 2 mm. high, purplish black, shining, longitudinally striate or rugose, rising from a dark purplish hypothallus.
COLUMELLA: cylindrical with a conical apex, or clavate, reaching to more than half the height of the sporangium.
CAPILLITIUM: dense, of brownish purple threads, radiating from the columella, sparingly forked and anastomosing, towards the surface branching and forming a delicate, nearly colorless network.
SPORES: purple-gray, closely spinulose, 11-14 µm in diameter.
PLASMODIUM: opaque white, rarely yellow
HABITAT: On mosses, mossy stumps, logs, and rocks.
DISTRIBUTION: Cosmopolitan, known from Auckland, Dunedin and Campbell Island.