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Species Information
Summary: Features include a non-viscid cap that is pale flesh-pink to pinkish brown, close to distant, notched to decurrent, pale pink to light vinaceous gills, a stem colored as the cap, white spore deposit, and large spiny spores. According to Mueller(2) this is among the more common Laccaria taxa found at high elevations and northern latitudes.
Mueller(2) examined collections from BC, WA, ID, AK, CO, MT, WY, the Faeroe Islands, and Switzerland, It is reported by Kernaghan(1) from AB. Collections were examined from CO, MT, and WY, and reports noted from AB, NU, France, Iceland, Italy, Svalbard, and Switzerland, (Osmundson).
Cap: 0.5-3.5cm across, "convex becoming flatter, then upturned with a tiny umbo; pale flesh-pink to pinkish brown; striate-furrowed at margin", (Phillips), 0.6-3.5cm across, convex to flat, "becoming uplifted, often depressed, occasionally umbonate when young", margin decurved [downcurved] to flat, entire to undulate [wavy]; hygrophanous, brownish orange, fading to buff; usually plicate-striate [pleated-striate] when fresh, fibrillose to finely fibrillose-scaly, (Mueller), 0.5-2.5(3.5)cm across, convex becoming flat or occasionally uplifted, with shallow central depression or rarely low broad umbo, margin involute to decurved [downcurved], often uplifted-wavy when old; mildly to strongly hygrophanous, orange-brown, red-brown or brick red, drying to pale orange-buff; bald or minutely scaly, especially when dry, translucent-striate to plicate-sulcate, entire or occasionally crenate [scalloped], occasionally splitting when old, (Osmundson)
Flesh: white (Phillips), 0.075-0.1cm thick at disc; flesh-color, (Mueller), thin; white to pale orange-brown, (Osmundson)
Gills: subdecurrent [somewhat decurrent], distant, thick; pale pink, (Phillips), sinuate to decurrent, close to distant; "pinkish flesh color to light vinaceous", (Mueller), adnate or rarely short-decurrent, subdistant, broad (occasionally narrow or ventricose), moderately thick; grayish orange or pinkish orange-brown, (Osmundson)
Stem: 3-5cm x 0.3-0.5cm, striate-fibrous; pinkish brown, (Phillips), 1.3-5.4(10.1)cm x 0.2-0.4(0.7)cm, equal or narrowing slightly toward base or top, occasionally swollen at base; colored as cap, basal mycelium white; "dry, fibrillose, not striate to moderately longitudinally striate", (Mueller), 1-2.8(4.7)cm x (0.1)0.2-0.4cm, equal, solid becoming hollow when old; colored as cap, brownish orange or red-brown; bald or minutely fibrillose; basal tomentum "white, scant to moderately dense", (Osmundson)
Odor: not distinctive (Phillips)
Taste: not distinctive (Phillips)
Microscopic spores: spores (7.8)8.5-14(14.7) x (7)8-12 microns excluding ornamentation, round to broadly elliptic, (occasionally elliptic), echinulate, echinulae (0.5)0.9-1.8 microns long, 3/4 - 1 micron wide at base, not crowded to crowded, hilar appendix 1.3-2 microns long, prominent, truncate, plage present, spores colorless, contents occasionally with 1 droplet; basidia 4-spored, 34.5-55 x 10-15.5 microns, clavate, colorless, sterigmata up to 11 microns long; cheilocystidia only found in one collection, 32-55.5 x 3-4.5(7.5) microns, "filamentous to subclavate, rarely clavate, thin-walled", colorless, (Mueller), spores 7.5-11.5(13) x 6-11 microns, nearly round, spines 0.4-1 micron, (Phillips), spores 8-11(12) x (7)8-9.5(10.5) microns, echinulae 1.8(2.5) microns long, 0.4-1.0(1.4) microns wide at base; basidia 4-spored; cheilocystidia absent in some collections, scattered to abundant in others, (Osmundson), [spores presumably inamyloid]
Spore deposit: white (Phillips, Mueller)
Habitat / Range
"stream banks and grassy areas, often outside woodlands", high alpine and subalpine, August to October, (Phillips), scattered to gregarious, occasionally cespitose [in tufts], "in poor soil, humus or among mosses", under Pinaceae, Betula (birch), or Salix (willow), restricted to arctic, boreal, or montane habitats, (Mueller), summer, fall
Similar Species
Laccaria laccata is similar but L. montana has larger spores and an arctic to boreal distribution, (Mueller). Laccaria laccata var. pallidifolia has smaller, round to nearly round spores, (Osmundson). Laccaria pseudomontana Osmundson, C. Cripps, & Mueller, described from CO, closely resembles L. montana macroscopically and microscopically, but often has smaller fruitbodies and has spores with shorter and narrower spines and slightly more elliptic shape ((6.5)7.5-10.8 x 6.5-9.5 microns, with spines 1(1.8) microns long, 0.4-0.6 microns wide at base), (Osmundson). Laccaria tortilis and L. pumila have 2-spored basidia, (Osmundson). See also SIMILAR section of Laccaria proxima.
