Comatricha suksdorfii Ellis & Everh., Bull. Washburn Lab. Nat. Hist.

Moreno, G., Castillo, A. & Thüs, H., 2018, Critical revision of type material of Stemonitales (Myxogastria) at the Natural History Museum London (BM), Phytotaxa 344 (2), pp. 149-159 : 156

Comatricha suksdorfii Ellis & Everh., Bull. Washburn Lab. Nat. Hist. 1: 5 (1884)

Holotype:— UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, on bark of Pinus albicaulis , September 1883, W. N. Suksdorf [s.n.], Ellis Collection 5310 ( NY).

Specimen examined: [ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA] Rex 144 [ BM 001084242 = box, BM 001247189 = slide, BM 001247197 = SEM stub].

The type material of this species has been studied by Moreno & al. (2004), and it is characterized by stipitate sporocarps, dark brown sporotheca, stalk approximately the same length as the sporotheca. The columella is thick, not sinuous and almost reaches the apex, where it branches into short secondary branches. The material conserved in BM and incorrectly labeled as type material was found in a box containing further species belonging to other taxa of the Stemonitales . The label of the box carries only rudimentary information which does not allow us to properly identify their origin, so we doubt that it was part of the type collection. The material preserved at BM is very scarce and the sinuous morphology of the columella differs from the material represented by the holotype in NY. Based on its microscopic characters the BM specimen seems closer to Comatricha sinuatocolumellata G. Moreno, H. Singer, A. Sanchez & Illana , also a nivicolous species and very similar to C. suksdorfii . However, the specimen Rex 144 at BM is different from C. sinuatocolumellata because of its larger and cylindrical sporotheca and a stalk with approximately the same length as the sporotheca. It may represent a currently still unnamed new taxon.