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Species Information
Summary: Features include 1) a small, reddish brown or orange brown cap that becomes whitish, 2) a hair-like dark stem, 3) rhizomorphs coming from the base, 4) growth on needles, and 5) lack of cheilocystidia, pleurocystidia and clamp connections. This is probably a Gymnopus. in Petersen(29) it is referred to in places as Gymnopus pallidocephalus, but the combination has not been made.
Collections were examined from BC, WA, AB, NS, YT, CA, CO, MT, NM, NY, VA, and WY, (Redhead(6)). Collections were examined from QC, MA, ME, MI, MN, NC, NH, and NY, (Gilliam, M.). It was reported also from MB, NB, NL, ON, and PE, (Redhead(6)).
Cap: 0.2-1.4cm across, convex becoming flat-convex "or disk slightly depressed"; dark reddish brown becoming whitish (pallid); "typically dry (if wet slightly tacky), opaque", smooth to faintly rugulose [finely wrinkled], (Smith), 0.5-1cm across, convex when young, flat-convex and often papillate when old; disc brown, light brown, or brownish orange when young, fading slightly when old, margin grayish orange when young fading to pale orange-white when old; bald, dull, striate or sulcate [grooved] or rugulose-striate, (Desjardin), 0.2-1.4cm across, pulvinate [cushion-shaped] to convex at first, then flat-convex to broadly conic-convex, finally flat to shallowly concave "and often subumbonate or umbilicate"; "pale orange yellow to light yellowish brown"; "dry, or subviscid in dry weather", "minutely velvety or matted fibrillose", "dull, opaque, smooth, even or faintly rugulose-striate" up to 2/3 the cap radius, "at first entire, soon eroded or crenate, pliant or membranous, reviving", (Gilliam)
Flesh: thin; buff or pale grayish orange, (Desjardin), thin; "yellowish white to light yellowish brown", (Gilliam)
Gills: attached, subdistant, narrow; pallid to buff; edges usually entire, (Smith), "adnate or adnexed, subdistant or distant, moderately broad", 1-2 tiers of subgills, not interveined; "buff, pinkish buff, or orange-white", (Desjardin), adnate at first, becoming adnexed to sinuate when old, "or sometimes attached to a partial adnate collar", subdistant to distant, 12-20 reaching stem, 1-2 irregular tiers of subgills, narrow (up to 0.1cm), thin, straight at first, broader near stem when old, not interveined or obscurely so when old, not forked; yellowish white, pale orange yellow, or light yellowish brown; margin entire or minutely fimbriate [fringed], (Gilliam)
Stem: 1.2-4.3cm x 0.02-0.08cm, horsehair-like, inserted on fallen needles, usually central; blackish brown in lower part, paler reddish brown upward; shining, (Smith), 2-4cm x 0.05-0.1cm, bristle-like, equal or narrowing downward, round in cross-section, insititious; top grayish brown or light brown when young, brown when old, base dark brown throughout maturation; stem shiny, bald; "rhizomorphs rare or abundant, bristle-like, brown or dark reddish brown", (Desjardin), 1.2-4.3cm x 0.02-0.08cm, central or somewhat eccentric, equal, round in cross-section, insititious, "hollow, bristle-like but not tough (thin, stiff, and easily cut)", "straight when moist, soon curling and twisting on drying"; yellowish brown or dark reddish brown to dark brown on upper half, blackish brown below; shining, opaque, bald or sometimes whitish-pruinose up to 0.1cm from top downward; sterile stems absent, (Gilliam), sometimes forms stems with no caps (Arora)
Odor: mild (Desjardin)
Taste: mild (Desjardin)
Microscopic spores: spores 6-10 x 2.5-4 microns, (Smith), spores (6)6.6-8.4(9.6) x (3)3.3-4.2 microns, elliptic, narrowly almond-shaped or lacrymoid [tear-shaped]; basidia 4-spored, 22-27 x 4.8-6.6 microns, clavate or spheropedunculate; cheilocystidia and pleurocystidia absent; clamp connections absent, (Desjardin), spores 6-9.8 x 2.5-4.2 microns, narrowly elliptic, narrowly oboval, or pip-shaped; basidia 4-spored, 20-33 x 4-7 microns, clavate or subclavate; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia none, (Gilliam)
Spore deposit: white (Gilliam)
Habitat / Range
gregarious "in troops on spruce and fir needle carpets, June to October", (Smith), gregarious on senescent needles of Tsuga (hemlock), Picea (spruce), Pseudotsuga (Douglas-fir), or Abies (fir), (very rarely on Pinus (pine)), (Desjardin), on needles in needle beds, mostly commonly Picea, Tsuga, and less often Pinus, (Redhead), gregarious or sometimes in troops "on needles of conifers, particularly spruce or hemlock", (Gilliam), summer, fall
Similar Species
Gymnopus androsaceus is similar to M. pallidocephalus but M. pallidocephalus is partial to conifer needles other than pine and is microscopically different (lacks cheilocystidia). Gilliam gives the differences as 1) cap is pale orange yellow to light yellowish brown from the beginning, (those of G. androsaceus are moderate to dark brown or brownish pink and fade to light yellowish brown only when old), 2) stem is paler and more flexible, 3) growth is usually on spruce or hemlock needles (G. androsaceus being found in a variety of habitats), 4) the walls of the cortical hyphae of the stem are irregularly incrusted or spirally thickened, in contrast to smooth walls in G. androsaceus, and 5) it lacks the diverticulate cells present on the gill edges of G. androsaceus, (Gilliam(1)).
