Baeospora myriadophylla
lavender baeospora
Marasmiaceae

Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.

Introduction to the Macrofungi

Photograph

© Simon Chornick     (Photo ID #24461)


Map

E-Flora BC Static Map

Distribution of Baeospora myriadophylla
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Species Information

Summary:
Features include small size, a lavender to mauve cap, close to crowded lilac-tinted gills, a stem with long coarse hairs at base, growth on rotten wood, white spore deposit, and small amyloid spores. It is uncommon in the Pacific Northwest.
Cap:
0.9-2.5cm across, convex when young, flat-convex or flat with a shallow central depression when old, "rarely with a small, obtuse, central papilla", margin even, incurved, becoming decurved [downcurved], wavy or lobed, rarely short-striate; hygrophanous, disc grayish purple to dull violet when young, violet-brown or grayish brown when old, margin pale grayish purple when young, light brown when old; bald, dull, moist, disc smooth, (Desjardin), 1.5-2.5cm across, convex then flat, "sometimes shallowly umbilicate or mammillate", margin remaining somewhat inrolled; hygrophanous, dark warm brown when moist, drying much lighter, honey brown, "generally with a purplish tinge toward the margin when moist"; dull, minutely rugose [wrinkled], "faintly floccose, especially toward margin", (Lennox); 1-4cm across, convex becoming flat or sometimes sunken in center, with incurved margin becoming wavy and uplifted when old; "lavender or brownish mauve", becoming more dingy yellowish brown or pale buff when old; "smooth, moist", (Phillips), usually brownish, occasionally with lilac tones, (Trudell)
Flesh:
less than 0.1cm thick, violaceous-buff, (Desjardin), very thin, "tough-pliant, more brittle in drying"; pale lilac when moist, then pallid, (Lennox), "tough; grayish", (Phillips)
Gills:
adnate or slightly adnexed, extremely crowded, subgills in 3-5 series, gills narrow; grayish purple or dull violet when young, becoming paler when old, (Desjardin), adnate to uncinate, very thin and crowded, linear, narrow; brick to dark purple, drying darker and with a fuscous tone, edges colored as faces; edges even, (Lennox), "adnate or nearly free, close to crowded, narrow; similar color to cap", (Phillips), 43-55 gills reaching stem, (5)7-12 subgills between each pair of gills, "occasionally forked toward the margin", (Breitenbach)
Stem:
2-5.5cm x 0.15-0.4cm, equal, round in cross-section or compressed and cleft, pliant, hollow, not insititious; top pale reddish gray when young, grayish purple when old, base grayish purple or dull violet when young, grayish brown or brown when old; top minutely pruinose, glabrescent [becoming bald], base pubescent [downy] or tomentose, the tomentum white or pale lavender, (Desjardin); 2.5-5.5cm x 0.1-0.25cm, equal most of length, usually somewhat expanded at base and top, round in cross-section or compressed-furrowed, hollow, stuffed, "tough, fibrous, not pliant"; lilac at top, "becoming brown to reddish brown downward or in drying"; "pruinose for the entire length, densely so at base, then almost matted, darker under the covering, lighter in drying specimens", (Lennox), 1-5cm x 0.1-0.3cm, "stuffed to hollow, pliant, tough; similar color to cap; dry, often grooved becoming smooth", with long, coarse hairs at base, (Phillips), usually brownish, occasionally with lilac tones, (Trudell)
Odor:
strongly fungal (Desjardin), faint and fungoid (Lennox)
Taste:
mild (Desjardin), faint and fungoid (Lennox)
Microscopic spores:
spores 2.7-4.2(4.5) x 2.1-3 microns, nearly round or elliptic, weakly amyloid; basidia 4-spored, 15-17.4 x 3.6-4.5 microns, clavate; pleurocystidia abundant near gill edge, scattered elsewhere, similar to cheilocystidia, cheilocystidia abundant, 16.8-27 x 4.2-7.2 microns, projecting 5-13.2 microns, broadly clavate or ventricose, colorless or pale yellow, inamyloid, thin-walled; basidia, basidioles, and cystidia "with thick, globular, brown, weakly dextrinoid pigment incrustations appressed to the basal portion of the cells", (Desjardin), spores 2.5-4.0 x (1.5)2-3 microns, ovate to almost elliptic, smooth, amyloid, thin-walled; basidia 4-spored, small, 14-15 x 3-4.5 microns, cylindric, heavily encrusted "with a weakly dextrinoid amorphous substance, seeming to cement the cells together at the base"; pleurocystidia as cheilocystidia but scattered, more abundant toward gill edge, cheilocystidia abundant, relatively small, 18-28 x 3-7 microns, "clavate, ventricose, apex obtuse and nipple-like or broadly rounded, thin-walled", colorless, (Lennox), spores 3.5-4.5 x 2-3 microns, elliptic, smooth, amyloid, (Phillips), clamps mentioned for basidia, (Breitenbach)
Spore deposit:
white (Lennox, Phillips)
Notes:
It has been found at least in BC (Redhead) and WA (Lennox). Collections were studied from WA, AK, and MI, (Wells, V.L.).
EDIBILITY
no (Phillips)

Habitat and Range

SIMILAR SPECIES
Chromosera cyanophylla has a slimy yellow cap and widely spaced gills descending the stem. See also SIMILAR section of Clitocybe violaceifolia.
Habitat
scattered to cespitose [in tufts] "on much decayed wood in moist lowland mixed woods, spring or fall", (Lennox), scattered to densely gregarious, lignicolous on decayed Abies logs, "typically buried deep within the logs", (Desjardin), "in small groups or clustered on decaying wood, especially poplar and hemlock"; June - October, (Phillips), on decayed Abies logs, sometimes buried deep within the logs, at higher elevations, (Castellano), typically "on hardwood logs and stumps", "less often on conifer wood and forest floor litter", (Trudell), summer, fall

Synonyms

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Collybia lilacea Quel.
Collybia myriadophylla (Peck) Sacc.
Collybia teleoianthina Metrod