Echinostelium
Sporocarps 20-183-550 µm high, stalked, when fresh, hyaline or white (263. White), or yellowish white (92. y White), bright yellow (83. brill. Y), or grayish yellowish pink (32. gy. y Pink), or when mature, white, yellowish or pinkish; sporotheca globose, 30-48.21-120 µm in diam. Stalk tapering to the apex, translucent; under transmitted light, hyaline, hollow, but usually filled with granular material in its lower part. Peridium evanescent but with a collar persistent when mature, rarelly with fragments clinging from capillitium tips, .Capillitium absent to well-developed and brached. Columella, when present, of various shapes, pigmented or not. Spores free, bright colored, globose, or subglobose; spore wall of uniform thickness. or with thickened articular surfaces.
All species in this genus are white or very pale. This feature, along with stalk shape (tapering to the apex) and stolons lacking, allows to distinguish Echinosteium specimens from other filametous fungi among which they grow. Also only E. minutum is preserve well when dry. All other species need to be mounted in microscopic slides in order to preserve them.
Echinostelium is considered the Myxomycete genus closest to Protocteliales. OLIVE (1975)
All Echinostelium species are possibly cosmopolitan
Corticulous