Brevilegnia unisperma

Brevilegnia unisperma Coker & Braxton; Coker, Jour. Elisha
Mitchell Soc. 42: 213. 1927.
Thraustotheca unisperma Coker & Braxton, Jour. Elisha Mitchell Soc. 42: 140. 1926.
Growth fairly dense on boiled hempseed, reaching a length of 8 mrn. ; main hyphae 10-68 /z thick at base, freely branched into secondary hyphae about 18-33 ju thick; sporangia abundant, long-cylindric, a few short-clavate in young cultures, the majority about 23-38 by 190-350 fx t primary ones terminal on the main branches, secondary ones formed by cymose branching, thicker than the hyphae bearing them; spores 10-16.5 ju in diameter, abnormal ones sometimes reaching 20 fx, escaping by rupture of the very thin sporangial wall at any point or seemingly by complete disappearance of the sporangial wall except for a small basal cup that often remains, leaving the encysted, angular spores free to exude in all directions, then after a rest passing through a swimming stage; oogonia abundant, spheric to oval, 15-24 p. in diameter (abnormal ones up to 39 m), the wall varying in thickness, often very irregular and with outgrowths up to 7 ix long, borne on long slender, often branched, bent or sometimes once coiled branches; eggs spheric, one to an oogonium, not rilling it, 12-19.5 ix in diameter, usually 14-18 fx, eccentric; antheridia on 25-65 per cent of the oogonia, irregular, with one to many finger-like projections touching the oogonia, borne as a rule on threads arising from the oogonial stalk, that are often branched, forming with the oogonial stalks a conglomerate growth; antheridial tubes not
observed.
Type locality: Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Habitat: Soil.
Distribution: North Carolina.