Summary:
Section Calodontes (Smith), Section Luculentae (Maas Geesteranus). Mycena rosella is characterized by the flexible nature of the fruiting body, pale rose colors, marginate gills, and two different types of cystidia on gill edges.

Cap:
(0.5)1-2(3)cm across, obtusely or sharply conic with incurved margin at first, then convex to bell-shaped, sometimes becoming almost flat when old, occasionally with small conic umbo; bright pink tinged with gray on disc, the margin a clearer pink at first or evenly colored overall, fading and becoming more yellowish when old, ("light russet vinaceous" to "flesh pink" at first, becoming paler and developing ochraceous tints when old); moist to lubricous, translucent-striate, (Smith), up to 2cm across, conic to hemispheric or bell-shaped, becoming more or less flat, with or without slight umbo; bright pink, pinkish incarnate, salmon pink to brownish pink with some purplish shade, passing into burnt sienna at the center, at times with a yellowish touch, occasionally more purplish at extreme margin, with age pallescent [becoming pale] but not pure white; somewhat lubricous when wet, delicately white-pruinose at first, then polished, translucent-striate, somewhat grooved, (Maas Geesteranus)

Flesh:
thin, pliant; dingy pinkish to whitish, (Smith), very thin, colored as cap, (Maas Geesteranus)

Gills:
adnate, usually horizontally but sometimes arcuate, sometimes slightly notched, moderately close to subdistant, 15-24 reaching stem, moderately broad (about 0.25cm), 1 or 2 tiers of subgills, gills interveined; pale to rather bright rose color, the edges a darker sordid reddish color, (Smith), ascending, finally more or less horizontal, broadly adnate, decurrent with a tooth, 15-23 reaching stem, up to 0.4cm broad, more or less ventricose [broader in middle]; fairly pale lilaceous pink or pinkish incarnate to dingy pink, pallescent with age, the edge reddish to purplish; minutely punctate with reddish dots (pleurocystidia), (Maas Geesteranus)

Stem:
2.5-7cm x 0.1-0.15(0.25)cm, equal, straight or flexuous [wavy], round in cross-section, rather flexible, translucent; pale rose or grayish rose, clearer in upper part, more sordid in lower part; lubricous but not viscid, bald in upper part, with base white-strigose or white-mycelioid, (Smith), 2.5-6cm x 0.05-0.2cm, equal, straight, curved in lower part, round in cross-section; originally dark reddish flesh-color, fading to fairly pale dingy yellowish pink or yellowish incarnate, covered with a red pruina above and with minute innate red to purplish fibrils farther down; smooth, the base covered with long coarse flexuous [wavy] yellowish to whitish fibrils, (Maas Geesteranus)

Odor:
not distinctive (Smith, Maas Geesteranus)

Taste:
not distinctive (Smith, Maas Geesteranus)

Microscopic spores:
spores 7-9 x 4-5 microns, narrowly elliptic, amyloid; basidia 4-spored; pleurocystidia abundant, arising from the gill trama and projecting 15-30 microns beyond the basidia, 60-80 x 10-14 microns, "narrowly fusoid-ventricose, smooth, with reddish contents when fresh", cheilocystidia 21-36 x 9-15 microns, clavate to subfusoid, covered overall with short blunt projections, the top occasionally elongated and smooth and then only the wider middle part roughened, contents dark reddish, (Smith)

Spore deposit:
white (Buczacki)

Notes:
It was collected by A.H. Smith from WA, OR, ID, NS, ON, CA, MI, and he says it is often abundant in open stands of pine. There is a collection from BC at the University of British Columbia. There are collections from WA, OR, ID, ON, AK, and Sweden at the University of Washington. There is a collection from NJ at Oregon State University. It is also found in Europe.

EDIBILITY

unknown

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Prunulus rosellus Murrill