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Species Information
Summary: {See also Xeromphalina Table.} Features include 1) a small cap that is pale yellow to yellow-orange or ochraceous with a reddish brown to brown center, and with gold-yellow frosting under hand-lens, 2) decurrent, pale yellow to yellow gills that become brown, 3) a dry horny stem that is reddish brown to black, with ochraceous powder at the top and yellow to ocher hairs at the base, 4) a mild taste, 5) growth in sphagnum bogs or coniferous debris, and 6) a white spore deposit. According to Redhead(2), Miller(17) based his concept on J. Favre''s 1936 description and a 1946 collection by Favre, but the latter is actually X. cauticinalis. The description here is from Redhead(2).
Collections were examined from BC, WA, OR, ID, AB, MB, NB, NL, NS, ON, QC, YT, AK, CO, KS, MA, ME, MI, MN, MT, NY, TX, VT, WY, Mexico, Finland, France, and Sweden, (Redhead(2)).
Cap: 0.7-1.7cm across, flat-convex or rarely pulvinate [cushion-shaped], "depressed or flattened centrally"; pale luteous [pale yellow] to amber or ochreous with reddish brown to umber center; becoming finely rimose [cracked] or eroded marginally when old, "translucent-striate when moist, becoming polished and opaque when partially dried", often with gold-yellow frosting at margin and centrally (under hand lens)
Flesh: thin, membranous; colored as cap surface
Gills: decurrent to arcuate-decurrent, subdistant, moderately narrow, sometimes interconnected by veins, 1-2 tiers of subgills; luteous [pale yellow] to pale luteous, becoming umber
Stem: 1.5-6cm x 0.05-0.1cm, thread-like, stuffed, horny; ''bay to chestnut, dark brick or black''; dry, with yellow to ochraceous powder at top, otherwise smooth and polished, with conspicuous, tomentose, ochreous to amber hairs at base
Odor: not distinctive
Taste: not distinctive
Microscopic spores: spores 5-7.5 x 3-4.5 microns, narrowly oval to elliptic to broadly elliptic or even nearly round, smooth, amyloid, colorless, thin-walled, basidia 4-spored, 21-28 x 4.5-6.5 microns, clavate, colorless, with clamp connections; pleurocystidia rare, scattered, inconspicuous, 30-35 x 2.7-3 microns, thread-like, subacute, colorless, thin-walled, cheilocystidia scattered, rare to abundant, 23-27 x 3.5-6.5 microns, mostly irregularly clavate with 1-5 swollen irregular processes at top; cap trama duplex, the subpellis a conspicuous layer of broad, heavily incrusted hyphae 4.5-16.5 microns wide, "composed of barrel-shaped hyphae often forming a layer of textura prismatica as viewed in scalp sections, usually dark reddish brown in KOH", in old fruitbodies sometimes lacking the reddish coloration, below this the tramal hypha 3.5-5.5 microns wide, "filamentous, finely to moderately incrusted with pigments, which are red to reddish brown in KOH"; cap cuticle a thin layer of repent, filamentous hyphae mostly 4.5-5 microns wide, "heavily incrusted with yellowish to orangish brown pigments, which become red to reddish brown in KOH", giving rise to cystidia largely confined to the cap margin at maturity, occasionally on the disc; pileocystidia around cap margin 30-50 x 4-7 microns, broader in branched parts, "often twice or more dichotomously or irregularly branched forming ascending, irregular, finger-like, rarely subglobose processes, the walls slightly thickened except at the apices of some, smooth, yellow, becoming reddish in KOH at least in the thickened portions"; stem cuticle hyphae 2.7-3.5 microns wide, filamentous, thick-walled, smooth to incrusted, dark reddish brown in KOH; caulocystidia abundant at top of stem, 25-38 x 3-8 microns, similar to those around cap margin
Spore deposit: white
Habitat / Range
in sphagnum bogs or on coniferous debris
Similar Species
Xeromphalina campanella fruits on coniferous logs and stumps rather than coniferous debris or sphagnum bogs, and cap trama is yellow brown in KOH as opposed to becoming reddish. Xeromphalina brunneola has a disagreeable (bitter) taste, fruits on conifer logs, and has narrower spores. Xeromphalina campanelloides has gills that are adnate with short tooth or arcuate, a bitter taste, habitat on rotting conifer wood, and shorter spores. Xeromphalina fulvipes has adnate gills, a bitter taste, and narrower spores. Xeromphalina cirris has broadly adnate to short-decurrent gills, habitat on conifer needles, usually in the mountains, and characteristic pileocystidia. Xeromphalina cauticinalis ssp. cauticinalis has a bitter taste. Xeromphalina parvibulbosa has gills that are arcuate to adnate with short tooth to short-decurrent, a mild to astringent or bitter taste, and cystidia around cap margin that are colorless in KOH as opposed to becoming reddish in KOH.
