Summary:
Section Typicae (Smith), Section Mycena (Maas Geesteranus). Features include 1) a pseudorhiza (root-like extension of stem), 2) a somewhat hygrophanous, striate cap that is blackish and hoary at first, 3) gray brown gills that become whitish or stained reddish, 4) a stem that is whitish in its upper part and cap-colored or paler in its lower part, 5) growth especially in bogs, 6) large spores, and 7) other microscopic characters. The description is from Smith(1) except where noted.

Cap:
1-4(5)cm across, convex to obtusely bell-shaped when young, becoming obtuse, broadly convex, bell-shaped or flat to umbonate, margin appressed to stem when young or incurved slightly, often remaining somewhat downcurved when old, occasionally becoming wavy; subhygrophanous [somewhat hygrophanous], blackish when young, the margin soon becoming pallid, fading slowly to "drab", or "avellaneous", the dingy brownish colors more conspicuous when old and sometimes becoming dingy yellowish brown near margin; lubricous to subviscid when wet, hoary [pruinose according to Maas Geesteranus] at first, soon bald and polished, finely radially wrinkled-striate and sometimes slightly translucent-striate, more or less sulcate [grooved] when old

Flesh:
thick on disc but tapered abruptly and equal 0.15cm) over remainder, cartilaginous and tough; white

Gills:
adnate, adnexed, or subsinuate [nearly sinuate], subdistant to close (22-30 reaching stem), narrow to moderately broad, broader in middle (up to 0.8cm); when old whitish to pallid or stained reddish; edges even, (Smith), fairly dark gray-brown, fading when old to pale grayish or whitish, edges paler than faces (but later colored as faces), (Maas Geesteranus)

Stem:
5-12cm x 0.1-0.4(0.5)cm, equal above a long (3-10cm) tapered pseudorhiza, hollow, very cartilaginous and tough; the upper part pallid to whitish, the lower part colored as cap or paler; sometimes with a faint bloom when young, soon bald and polished, at times translucent when moist, "occasionally twisted and faintly longitudinally striate"

Odor:
none (Smith), none, indistinct or strong, said to be radish-like on being crushed by one collector, farinaceous by another (Maas Geesteranus)

Taste:
mild or slightly astringent (Smith), none, indistinct, or rancid-farinaceous, (Maas Geesteranus)

Microscopic spores:
spores 12-17.5 x 6-8(9) microns, irregular in shape, broadly elliptic to oval, amyloid; basidia 2-spored or occasionally 3-spored, 40-54 x 7-9 microns; pleurocystidia none or present only near gill edge, cheilocystidia embedded but abundant and often forming a sterile band, 38-47 x 14-22 microns, clavate, enlarged part covered with short rod-like projections "or the projections elongated and branched or contorted", colorless, (Smith), spores 11.6-17.5 x 7.6-8.4 microns (2-spored basidia) or 10.7-12.5 x 6.7-8.1 (4-spored basidia), pip-shaped, smooth, amyloid, (Maas Geesteranus)

Spore deposit:
white (Buczacki)

Notes:
The distribution includes at least WA, ON, MI, NY, (Smith(1)), and Europe including the Netherlands (Maas Geesteranus). There are two collections from BC at the University of British Columbia, one by S. Redhead and one by O. Ceska. There are collections from OR and MI at the University of Washington.

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