Summary:
Features include a conic to bell-shaped, dry cap that is ocher brown to cinnamon; adnate, crowded, narrow gills that are whitish becoming cinnamon brown then rust; thin, fragile, ringless, pruinose-appearing stem that is cap-colored becoming darker; rust-brown spore deposit; and microscopic characters including relatively large spores, exclusively lecythiform caulocystidia, and strongly positive NH3 reaction on the basidia. Watling''s description is for C. tenera (Schaeffer ex Fr.) Fayod.

Cap:
0.8-2cm across, bell-shaped to bell-shaped - conic becoming convex; fulvous tinged sienna to cinnamon tinged ocher when fresh, paler when old, ochraceous on drying; glistening when dry, strongly striate throughout, (Watling), 1-3cm across, bluntly conic becoming bell-shaped; ocher brown to cinnamon, drying more yellowish; dry, with fine lines (striate), (Phillips)

Flesh:
buff or sienna in cap and stem, drying out ochraceous when old, (Watling), thin; cap-colored, (Phillips)

Gills:
adnate then free, crowded; pale cinnamon then rust, edge white; edge flocculose when fresh, (Watling), narrowly adnate, 20-25 reaching stem, 3 subgills between each pair of gills, broad; cream-colored when young, rust-brown when old; edges whitish-floccose, (Breitenbach), "adnate, crowded, narrow"; whitish becoming cinnamon brown, (Phillips)

Stem:
3.5-7.5cm x 0.1-0.3cm, slender, equal or widening slightly downward to slightly swollen base; colored as cap, darkening slightly when old; "minutely pruinose-striate throughout when fresh", (Watling), 4-8cm x 0.1-0.15cm, light brown when young, later increasingly dark red-brown, especially toward base; +/- smooth, with pale powder toward top, (Breitenbach), 5-9cm x 0.4-0.7cm, "straight, becoming hollow, fragile"; "whitish flushed brownish with cap color", appearing finely powdered, (Phillips), 7.5-10cm x 1.5-2cm, (Lincoff(1)), 4-8.5cm x 0.15cm, (Lincoff(2)), 4-9cm x 0.1-0.4cm (Arora for tenera group), 3-8cm x 0.15-0.4cm, (Bessette for complex)

Veil:
absent (Watling)

Odor:
not distinct (Watling), mushroomy (Phillips)

Taste:
not distinct (Watling)

Microscopic spores:
spores 10-13 x 5.5-6 microns, elliptic in face view, slightly flattened on one side in side view, ocher in water and rust in alkali, thick-walled, germ pore large and distinct; basidia 4-spored, 25-30 x 9-11 microns, short, cylindric; pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia 17.5-25 x 7-10 microns, lecythiform, head (3.5)4-5 microns wide, "intermixed with numerous needle-shaped crystals in ammonia mounts"; cap cuticle a hymeniform layer of spheropedunculate cells with slightly thickened pedicels intermixed with a few cystidia; stem cuticle "of parallel, cylindric hyphae covered with lines of lecythiform cystidia, especially at apex"; clamp connections present, (Watling), spores 10.5-14.0 x 5.0-6.9 microns, elliptic, smooth, thick-walled, red-brown, with germ pore; basidia 4-spored, clavate to ventricose, NH3 reaction strongly positive; pleurocystidia not seen, cheilocystidia 16-25 x 6-12 microns, head 3-6 microns across; cap cuticle hymeniform, of clavate cells 22-80 x 12-30 microns, with light brown pigmentation, no clamp connections, occasional interspersed capitate pileocystidia; cystidia on stem exclusively lecythiform, (Breitenbach), spores 9-14 x 5-8 microns, oval to elliptic, smooth, (Phillips)

Spore deposit:
sienna tinged rust (Watling), rust-brown (Breitenbach), bright yellow or reddish-brown, (Phillips), red-brown (Miller)

Notes:
C. tenera is widespread in North America. Murrill reported it from WA, OR, and CA. Breitenbach(4) give the distribution as North America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa but say that other species are often misidentified as this species. The University of Washington has collections from WA, AK, CO, LA, and NY. Oregon State University has collections from OR and CA. The University of British Columbia has collections from BC. It occurs also in Europe.

EDIBILITY

no (Phillips), unknown but similar filaris poisonous (Arora)