Summary:
Features include 1) a hygrophanous cap that is honey colored over the disc and striations, paler along the margin and between striations, 2) adnate, broad gills that are pallid tawny to cream becoming colored as the cap, 3) a fragile equal stem that is pale yellowish to tawny darkening to chestnut brown at least in its lower part, and is at first finely downy, 4) mild odor and taste, 5) growth on wood and among mosses, and 6) microscopic characters including relatively small spores for Galerina, and abundant cystidia on the stem and gills. The name Galerina vittaeformis (Fr.) Singer was used in Smith''s monograph, but Watling has explained why vittiformis is the correct spelling. Atkinson used G. hypnorum for this species, and G. hypnorum has been used for almost any Galerina growing on moss. Galerina hypnorum is reserved by Smith and Singer for a more or less ochraceous-capped species growing on moss that does not have caulocystidia over most of stem (as G. vittiformis does) and does not have calyptrate spores. This description, derived from Smith(2) (except where noted), is for var. vittiformis f. vittiformis which has been known following Kuehner as Galerina rubiginosa. Var. vittiformis f. tetraspora is less variable in size and color (cap 0.5-1(2.2)cm, stem 2-3cm x 0.1cm), has 4-spored basidia as opposed to 2-spored for f. vittiformis, has spores that are usually deeper in color, and is generally less commonly found. Var. albescens differs in having a paler color when dried and a more evenly colored stem: it also has 2-spored and 4-spored forms.

Cap:
0.4-2.5(3)cm across, bluntly conic to convex, becoming broadly convex to expanded-umbonate or nearly flat, often with broad prominent umbo and recurved margin; hygrophanous, honey-colored ("ochraceous tawny" Ridgway(1) color) over disc and striations, paler along margin and between striations, fading to paler yellowish ("warm buff" Ridgway(1) color); moist, presumably bald, striate with broad translucent striations when moist, sometimes sulcate [grooved] when faded

Flesh:
thin, fragile; pale tawny to yellowish

Gills:
broadly adnate, close or subdistant (10-15 reach stem), 1-2 tiers subgills, broad (0.5cm), at times somewhat ventricose [broader in middle]; pallid tawny to cream color becoming when old colored as cap

Stem:
3-6(12)cm x 0.07-0.2cm, equal, straight or flexuous [wavy], fragile, tubular, pale yellowish to tawny darkening to chestnut brown at least in lower part, drying dull reddish brown to tawny brown with yellowish apex; finely pubescent [downy] from projecting caulocystidia at least down to middle of stem

Veil:
no ring

Microscopic spores:
spores 10-12.3 x 5-6.5 microns, ovate in face view, inequilateral in side view, with broad distant warty markings, plage sharply delimited, spores pale ochraceous tawny revived in KOH (usually paler than in f. tetraspora), with apical callus; basidia (1)2-spored, 20-24 x 7-8 microns, colorless in KOH; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia similar and abundant to scattered, 56-74 x 10-16 microns, "fusoid-ventricose, pedicellate, with acute, subacute or rounded tip, the walls of the neck often flexuous, always thin", and colorless in KOH; gill trama "somewhat interwoven in mature specimens, the wall yellowish with incrusting pigment", cap trama homogeneous, the epicutis hardly differentiated and no pileocystidia observed; stem "with numerous caulocystidia similar to the cheilocystidia or more subulate", extending down to the lower part of the stem; clamp connections present

Spore deposit:
red-brown (Buczacki)

Notes:
Var. vittiformis forma tetraspora has been reported from BC (in Redhead(5)) and Smith(2) gives the distribution as WA, OR, MI, NY, WY, Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, etc.), and Asia (Altai Mts.). Var. vittiformis forma vittiformis has a distribution "throughout the United States and Canada, also in Europe and Japan, and probably also in Northern Asia", (Smith(2)). At least the 2-spored form of var. albescens has been found in WA as well as Tierra del Fuego and northern Europe. There are collections of Galerina vittiformis from WA, OR, and CA at Oregon State University. There are numerous collections of both varieties by Oluna Ceska from BC at the University of British Columbia. The University of Washington has collections from WA, WY, and Australia.

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