Stemonitis

I went out early this morning to look for a Candelabra coral fungus that I'd been told about. After a couple of hours searching I still hadn't found it but I did come across this very distinctive slime mould. Its one of the Stemonitis species with brown sporangia standing on thin black stalks. The whole structure is only about a centimetre tall and is coming towards the end of its life cycle as the sporangia are breaking down and releasing their spores. It was a nice find and more than made up for my earlier barren search.