Summary:
Features include 1) very small size, 2) a dry striate cap that is buff to pale fawn with a darker cinnamon disc, 3) distant gills that are adnate to a free collar, 4) a thread-like stem that is black in its lower part and brownish to whitish at the top, 5) growth on sedge and grass stems, and 6) microscopic characters including distinctive cheilocystidia. The description is derived from Redhead(8) except where specified.

Cap:
0.05-0.25cm across, pulvinate [cushion-shaped] to convex with disc flattened to low umbonate, sometimes cap with flaring edges; buff to pale fawn with darker cinnamon disc; dry, opaque, obscurely to prominently grooved-striate, edges scalloped, (Redhead(8)), 0.05-0.4cm across, pale brown, beige or grayish, (Hansen)

Flesh:
very thin; pale brown, (Buczacki)

Gills:
adnate to a free collar, distant, moderately broad, no subgills; white, (Redhead(8)), 6-9 gills, (Hansen), 6-7 gills (Moser)

Stem:
0.4-3.6cm x 0.005-0.01cm, thread-like, wiry, insititious, arising from subepidermal, poorly delimited, sclerotium-like base; black in lower part, brownish to whitish at top; bald, twisting when dry, (Redhead(8)), 1-2cm long, insititious; pale at top, dark brown to black downwards; smooth, polished, (Hansen)

Odor:
not distinctive (Redhead(8))

Taste:
not distinctive (Redhead(8))

Microscopic spores:
spores 9.7-12.1 x 4-5.5 microns, elliptic to vaguely oval or oboval, inequilateral in profile, smooth, inamyloid, thin-walled, with prominent apiculus; basidia 1-spored to 2-spored, 17-21 x 6-7.5 microns, "slightly attenuated when young, becoming clavate", with basal clamp connection; cheilocystidia "abundant and crowded, forming a sterile edge", 18-19 x 8.5-12.5 microns, similar to pileipellis cells; pileipellis "a palisade of clavate to turbinate cells 14-18 microns in diameter, with thin to pronounced pale to dark ochreous walls, densely covered by small finger-like processes usually in compact rosettes and occasionally forked"; cap trama "extremely thin, only 3-10 hyphae thick", hyphae 2-9 microns wide, subparallel to interwoven, colorless, inamyloid, thin-walled, noninflated, smooth, with clamp connections; gill trama: hyphae similar to cap trama hyphae but slightly more compacted in subhymenial area; caulopellis: hyphae 2-3 microns wide, parallel, thick-walled, with clamp connections, with brown, relatively smooth walls and occasional pore-like anastomoses; stem trama: hyphae colorless to pale brownish, thin-walled, inamyloid, (Redhead(8)), spores 8.5-9.5 x 5-6 microns, oval to elliptic; cheilocystidia 12-17 x 7.5-9 microns, of broom cell type, with yellow warts on top, (Hansen), spores 10-12 x 4.5-5.5 microns, (Moser), spores 8.5-11.5 x 4.5-6 microns, (Buczacki)

Spore deposit:
white (Buczacki)

Notes:
Marasmius limosus has been found at least in BC, ON, Finland, and Sweden, (Redhead(8)), and NL, NS, and ON, (Redhead(9)). It has been found in Europe, including Denmark and Norway, (Hansen). There is a collection from WA at the University of WA.

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