 The fruit bodies of Spongiforma species have a brain @-@ like to sponge @-@ like form , and grow on the surface of the ground . They do not have a stalk , and lack a layer of outer skin . The small cavities ( locules ) of the fruit body are irregular in outline and measure between 2 and 20 mm ( 0 @.@ 08 and 0 @.@ 8 in ) in diameter . They are lined with a smooth , greyish @-@ orange to brown or reddish brown hymenium ( spore @-@ bearing tissue ) , with sterile ridges that range in colour from white to cream . The columella ( a column @-@ like structure extending up into the fruit body ) is poorly developed , pear @-@ shaped , cream @-@ coloured , and attached at the base to white rhizomorphs . The basidiospores are brown to vinaceous @-@ brown in mass , almond @-@ shaped , bilaterally symmetrical , and finely wrinkled . Spores bear a central apiculus ( a region that was once attached to the sterigmata at the end of a basidium ) and a small apical pore . The spores are reddish @-@ brown in water , violet grey in 3 % potassium hydroxide , inamyloid , and cyanophilic ( turning red in the stain acetocarmine ) . The basidia are four @-@ spored , and do not discharge the spores forcibly . Cystidia are common on the sterile locule edges ; they are hyaline ( translucent ) and range in shape from cylindrical to ventricose ( swollen in the middle ) or rostrate ( with a <unk> proboscis ) . The hyphae of the flesh are gelatinous and inamyloid . Clamp connections are absent from the hyphae . 
