Summary:
{See also Hemimycena Table.} Hemimycena lactea is characterized by small size, white color, robust stature for a Hemimycena, habitat on fallen twigs and conifer needles, long cylindric spores, and cystidia on cap, gills and stem. Gills are narrow, and free or narrowly adnate. The stem is equal and densely downy overall (hairy at the base). The description is derived from Smith(1) who says it is "fairly common during late summer and fall". The online Index Fungorum, and MycoBank, both accessed Oct 20, 2020, listed Hemimycena delicatella and Mycena delicatella as synonyms of Hemimycena lactea.
Hemimycena lactea has been found at least in WA, OR, ID, CA, MI, and NY, (Smith). There are collections from BC at the University of British Columbia. Hemimycena lactea is found in Europe including Switzerland, North Africa, and Asia (Breitenbach(3)).
Gills:
free or narrowly adnate, close to subdistant, narrow; pure white, (Smith)
Stem:
1-3cm long and about 0.1cm wide, equal, pliant but cartilaginous, solid or with a tubule, base not bulbous; [white], "not changing color or becoming only slightly yellowish"; with a slightly sticky feel, densely pruinose-pubescent [downy] all over, densely strigose [hairy] at the base, the hairs forming a mat, stem appears closer to bald when old, (Smith), white (Phillips)
Odor:
not distinctive (Smith)
Microscopic spores:
spores 7-9 x 2.5-3 microns (9-12 x 3-3.5 microns in 2-spored variant), nearly cylindric to slightly ventricose with tapered apiculus, inamyloid, [presumably smooth]; basidia 2- or 4-spored; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia similar and very abundant but nevertheless difficult to demonstrate, 18-26 x 4-6(9), "nearly cylindric or somewhat ventricose", the top obtuse or rounded into a small head, "often with a conspicuous resinous deposit over the head", cap surface "covered with a dense turf-like growth of cystidia and filamentous hyphae" 15-28 x 3-8 microns, these often with contorted or rounded incrusted tops, sometimes with a head, caulocystidia very numerous and similar to pileocystidia, the resinous incrustation gives slightly sticky feel to cap and stem, (Smith)
Spore deposit:
white (Phillips)
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