Summary:
In Crepidotus, the spores of this species are unique in shape and the colour of the spore deposit (Hesler). Unique characteristics are the smooth, cylindric, pale spores, the whip-like shape of the cheilocystidia, and the clampless hyphae (Bandala). Other features include a small, kidney-shaped to nearly round, non-viscid cap, white gills that become pale ocher or brownish, absent or short stem, and growth on wood (usually hardwood) or herbaceous stems. Note that the specimens cited under C. epibryus (Fr.) Quelet sensu Pilat by Hesler & Smith are now considered C. subverrucisporus, and the ones they cited under C. herbarum are considered C. epibryus as used here. "Since this taxon in the sense of Pilat (1948) embraces collections with ornamented basidiospores that correspond either with C. luteolus (Lambotte) Sacc. or with C. subverrucisporus Pilat (Singer, 1951; Senn-Irlet, 1995), the interpretation followed here is based on the concept of Senn-Irlet (1992a, 1995).", (Bandala, with Latin names italicized and accent on the name Pilat). Crepidotus epibryus is common in the Pacific Northwest.

Cap:
0.5-2cm, kidney-shaped to nearly round; white; hairy or downy, not viscid, (Arora), 0.8-2.2cm, kidney-shaped, suborbicular [nearly round], or dimidiate, margin incurved; white; villose or tomentose, becoming bald, (Hesler)

Flesh:
very thin; white, (Arora), medium thin; white, (Hesler)

Gills:
fairly well spaced, "radiating from point of attachment to substrate"; white becoming pale ocher or brownish, (Arora), radiating from a lateral or eccentric point, subdistant, medium broad; "white when young, finally pale ochraceous", (Hesler)

Stem:
absent or rudimentary (Arora), none, but cap strongly villose at point of attachment, (Hesler)

Odor:
indistinct (Buczacki)

Taste:
indistinct (Buczacki)

Microscopic spores:
spores 6-8 x 3-4 microns, pip-shaped to lance-shaped or somewhat elliptic, smooth, (Arora), spores 6-8 x 2.8-3.6 microns, pip-shaped, sublanceolate to somewhat elliptic to suboval, "smooth, colorless to pale yellow in 2% KOH", [no germ pore], pleurocystidia none, cheilocystidia 22-51 x 4-7 microns, "clavate, cylindric, or ventricose, more rarely forked, clustered and conspicuous"; cap tissue interwoven, hyphae 3-4 microns broad; cap cuticle a trichoderm, the epicuticular hyphae loosely tangled, colorless, more or less erect, slender (2-4 microns broad); clamp connections absent except on hyphae at point of attachment of cap, (Hesler), spores 6-10(11) x (2)2.5-3.5(4) microns, cylindric to narrowly elliptic, rarely elliptic, often rather curved in side view, with a weak suprahilar depression, commonly in tetrads and dyads, thin-walled, pale yellowish to yellowish or yellow; basidia 4-spored, 15-50 x 5-8 microns, clavate, colorless; cheilocystidia (14)25-80(87) x 2.5-6.5(7.5) microns, "narrowly-lageniform to subcylindric-lageniform or somewhat fusoid, flexuous, contorted or coiled and then, somewhat whip-shaped, with a neck more or less long, slender and at times forked", (1)1.5-3.5(4) microns in diameter at apex, numerous, projected above spore-bearing surface, colorless, thin-walled, clampless; clamp connections absent, (Bandala)

Spore deposit:
pale yellow-brown, (Arora), pale brownish yellow, pale for Crepidotus, (Hesler), yellow (Bandala), buff (Buczacki)

Notes:
Bandala et al. examined collections from WA, OR, ID, NY, Mexico, and Spain, and noted reports also from BC, CA, ON, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, China, and Japan. Hesler & Smith examined collections as Crepidotus herbarum from MA, MI, NY, OH, OR, and TN.

EDIBILITY

unknown (Arora)

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Crepidotus herbarum (Peck) Sacc.
Crepidotus hypnophilus (Pers.) Nordstein
Pleurotellus herbarum (Peck) Singer