Summary:
Dacryonaema rufum produces tiny brown fruitbodies that are conic or cylindric and expand at the top into a pruinose cap when fertile. The identification is confirmed by microscopic characters.

Microscopic:
spores 9-11 x 3-4 microns, cylindric or almost so, flattened adaxially and most slightly curved, without septa or becoming 1-septate; probasidia cylindric to narrowly clavate, the base 3.5-4.5 microns in diameter, the apex swollen to 5-7(10) microns, up to 60 microns long, epibasidia 10-20 x 2-3 microns, conic or cylindric and tapered apically, "clamp connections of the medallion type, visible at bases of young basidia but often obscured during proliferation, sometimes incomplete and resembling false clamps"; dikaryophyses scattered, mostly 2-4.5 microns wide, up to 70 microns long, simple to irregularly branched; hymenium consisting of basidia and scattered dikaryophyses, hyphae of the hymenium not gelatinized or only slightly so; hyphae of the stem 2-4 microns wide, branched, septate, without clamp connections, gelatinized, the lumen completely occluded or up to 2 microns wide, a gelatinous sheath visible outside the hyphal wall, the sheath up to 10 microns in diameter, (Brough), spores 9-11(12) x 3-3.5 microns, almost cylindric to almost allantoid, 1-2-cellular, colorless; basidia 35-40 x 2.5 microns, almost cylindric; hyphae thick-walled, (Raitviir)

Notes:
It is found in BC, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, and reported from Belgium and Germany, (Brough). Collections were examined from BC and WA, (Klett).

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Sphaeronaema rufum Fr.