Summary:
Features of Galerina stylifera var. stylifera include 1) a hygrophanous, ochraceous-tawny to cinnamon-brown, viscid, striate cap, 2) adnate, close, broad gills that are "buckthorn brown" becoming "ochraceous brown", 3) a stem colored as the gills near the top, turning dark brown from the base upward, 4) a fleeting fibrillose ring, 5) growth on wood, and 6) microscopic characters. Smith(2) describe a var. velosa, "a large form consistently mistaken in the field for G. autumnalis, but distinguished from it by a fibrillose rather than membranous annulus". Smith(2) describe a further var. badia characterized by a bay-brown cap (which becomes ochraceous tawny then cinnamon buff) and a rusty brown lower stem that dries tawny overall (or the base only slightly darker) rather than drying dull cinnamon brown. The description here for var. stylifera is derived from Smith(2) except where noted. Galerina stylifera var. stylifera common in Pacific Northwest.

Cap:
1.5-5cm across, broadly convex with inrolled margin, becoming flat or with very obscure umbo; hygrophanous, "ochraceous-tawny" to "cinnamon-brown", darker when young and paler at maturity, margin sometimes "cinnamon-buff" (dull yellowish), cap drying pale dingy buff; bald, viscid, polished, translucent-striate when moist

Flesh:
thin (about 0.15cm), tapered to margin, pliant; colored as cap

Gills:
depressed adnate and seceding, moderately close (25-28 reach stem), 2-3 tiers of subgills, broad (up to 0.7cm in 5cm caps); "buckthorn brown" becoming "ochraceous tawny" or darker; edges even

Stem:
4-6cm x (0.25)0.3-0.6cm, equal, hollow; top about same color as gills, turning bister or darker from base upward; pruinose near top, thinly fibrillose in lower part, becoming bald

Veil:
apical ring of veil fibrils soon disappearing

Odor:
none (Smith), often floury-rancid (Moser)

Microscopic spores:
spores 6.3-8.7 x 4-5 microns, elliptic, smooth, plage scarcely demonstrable; basidia 4-spored, 19-22 x 4.3-7.5 microns, colorless in KOH; pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia abundant, 23-28 x 3.5-8 microns, ventricose-subcapitate to narrowly bowling-pin-shaped, colorless in KOH; clamp connections present

Spore deposit:
ochraceous-brown (Buczacki)

Notes:
Galerina stylifera occurs throughout northern and western United States and Europe. There are collections from BC at the University of British Columbia, collections from WA at the University of Washington, and collections from OR at Oregon State University. Var. velosa collections were examined from ID and CO (Smith(2)). Var. badia collections were examined from ID and QC (Smith(2)).

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