Summary:
Features include small size, a buff to dark brown cap, crowded to distant gills, growth on coniferous cones or debris, and microscopic characters including spores that are small, smooth, and inamyloid.

Cap:
0.5-2.4cm across, convex to flat or rarely obtusely conic, becoming depressed when old, margin inrolled when young; hygrophanous to subhygrophanous [somewhat hygrophanous], vinaceous buff to grayish sepia or sepia, rarely whitish; dry, rugulose [finely wrinkled], unpolished, densely pruinose, translucent-striate when moist, (Redhead(1)), 0.8-3.7cm across, bell-shaped or convex when young, flat-convex or flat, rarely with wavy, uplifted margin when old; very variable in color, typically dark grayish brown overall when young, soon grayish brown or yellowish brown on disc, fading on margin to pale yellowish brown, grayish yellow, cream, or buff, "sometimes entirely buff or cream throughout maturation"; bald, smooth or rugulose, dull, translucent-striate, (Desjardin), usually some shade of medium to dark brown (Trudell)

Flesh:
fleshy; whitish, (Redhead(1)), thin; whitish, (Desjardin)

Gills:
adnate to adnexed, crowded to distant, 2 to 3 tiers of subgills, moderately broad; white, (Redhead(1)), adnexed, close, 2-3 tiers of subgills, narrow; "white or pale yellowish buff", (Desjardin(1))

Stem:
up to 4cm long and up to 0.25cm wide, equal, stuffed, becoming hollow when old; white in upper part, "sienna to umber basally"; densely pruinose; when substrate is buried root-like pseudorhiza "up to 6cm long, covered with ochreous floccose mycelium", (Redhead(1)), 2-8(15)cm x 0.15-0.32cm, equal, round in cross-section, often rooting, fibrous; top white or pale yellowish white, mid-part light yellow, golden yellow, or pale orange-brown, base brownish yellow, brownish orange, or light brown; top bald or pruinose, mid-part pubescent [downy], base tomentose, typically covered with downy, pale orange-white mycelium, (Desjardin(1))

Odor:
not distinctive (Redhead(1)), mild (Desjardin(1))

Taste:
not distinctive (Redhead(1)), mild (Desjardin(1))

Microscopic spores:
spores 3-7.5 x 1.5-3.5 microns, elliptic to nearly tear-shaped, smooth, inamyloid, colorless, thin-walled, (Redhead(1)); basidia 4-spored, 17-25 x 2-4.5 microns, clavate, simple-septate; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia abundant or rarely sparse, projecting prominently, 40-70 x 7.5-13 microns, capitate-cylindric to lecythiform or obtusely ventricose, colorless, "scantily to heavily capped by resin", "walls thin or pronounced"; caulocystidia abundant, 70-170 x 6.5-20 microns, often aggregated, similar to pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia, (Redhead(1)), spores 3.3-6.6 x 2.1-3.3(3.6) microns, elliptic; basidia 4-spored, 15-24 x 2.4-4.5 microns, clavate; cheilocystidia abundant, 42-66 x 6.6-9 microns, "cylindric, capitulate or obtusely ventricose", colorless, inamyloid, thin-walled, pleurocystidia abundant, 36-45 x 7.2-9(12) microns, similar to cheilocystidia; cap cuticle hymeniform, cells 12-26 x 4.2-12 microns, clavate, spheropedunculate or pyriform, with scattered pileocystidia 48-100 x 4.2-7.5 microns, "cylindric, elongate-acuminate or tibiiform, projecting 20-48 microns"; caulocystidia abundant, 40-140 x 7.2-15 microns, "often clustered, capitulate, narrowly conic-capitate", with colorless to pale yellow, inamyloid walls up to 2 microns thick, (Desjardin(1))

Spore deposit:
[white]

Notes:
Collections were examined from BC, WA, NL, and CA, (Redhead(6)). Collections were examined from BC, WA, OR, ID, NS, ON, QC, AK, MI, and NY, (Redhead(1)).

EDIBILITY

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Collybia albipilata Peck