Summary:
Section Typicae (Smith), Section Fragilipedes (Maas Geesteranus). Features include 1) a hygrophanous, dark grayish brown to pale grayish, striate cap with a pale bluish bloom at first, 2) pale gray, interveined gills, 3) a fragile stem that is cap-colored with a bluish cast and a dense white bloom at first, 4) growth on alder logs, 5) a white spore deposit, and 6) elliptic, smooth, amyloid spores. Maas Geesteranus says "It may well be asked whether Mycena alnicola is a truly different species from M. abramsii." The description is derived from Smith(1) except where noted.

Cap:
1-2.5cm across, elliptic becoming obtusely conic, finally broadly bell-shaped or convex, margin appressed to stem at first; "hygrophanous but scarcely changing color when moisture escapes", "benzo brown" to "fuscous" on disc, the rest "light drab" or the extreme margin white, becoming "drab gray" or paler when old [Smith key indicates blackish becoming pale gray, and Smith says, "Both pileus and stipe of young specimens show considerable variation in color, but nearly always a strong shade of bluish gray prevails beneath the hoary bloom. In age the entire fruiting body becomes glaucous gray"]; pale bluish bloom at first, soon polished and moist, translucent-striate when mature and moist, becoming grooved

Flesh:
thin, fragile; gray

Gills:
adnate, ascending, subdistant (20-30 reaching stem), 2 tiers of subgills, gills narrow to moderately broad (about 0.2cm), interveined; "pale gull gray"

Stem:
4-6cm x 0.15-0.2cm, equal, hollow, fragile; "dark Quaker drab" to "dark mouse gray" (with a distinct bluish cast), "at first concolorous with pileus at maturity", the upper part at first with a dense white bloom, soon polished and moist

Odor:
mild, but var. odora described from WA somewhat radish-like

Taste:
mild, but var. odora described from WA somewhat radish-like

Microscopic spores:
spores (6)7-9(10) x 4-5 microns, elliptic, smooth, amyloid; basidia 4-spored; pleurocystidia rare to scattered, similar to cheilocystidia, cheilocystidia 26-40 x 9-15 microns, "clavate to broadly fusoid, becoming elongated, subcylindric", fusoid-ventricose or sometimes with one or two finger-like protuberances, the tips smooth "or with a slight resinous incrustation when revived in KOH", (Smith), spores 9.0-10.7 x 4.7-5.6 microns, pip-shaped, smooth, amyloid; basidia 4-spored, 30-36 x 7-9 microns; pleurocystidia infrequent, similar to cheilocystidia, cheilocystidia forming a sterile band (gill edge homogeneous), 32-60 x 8-17 microns, "fusiform, sublageniform, subcylindrical, clavate, clamped, apically passing into a narrow neck or two to three necks, or mucronate, or broadly rounded", (Maas Geesteranus)

Spore deposit:
[presumably white]

Notes:
Both the type variety and var. odora were described from WA (Smith). Mycena alnicola was also reported from BC by Gamiet(1).

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