Collybia racemosa (Persoon: Fries) Quélet
Mém Soc. Émul. Mondtbéliard, sér. 2, 5: 342. 1873.

Common Name: none

Synonyms: Dendrocollybia racemosa (Pers.) R.H. Petersen & Redhead; Microcollybia racemosa (Pers.) Lennox

• Pileus

  Cap 0.7-1.5 cm in diameter, broadly conic, becoming convex, eventually plano-convex, the disc slightly umbonate; (in some specimens the cap may be greatly reduced or absent); margin decurved, becoming plane to raised, entire, eroded or wavy; surface dull brown, glabrous at the disc, elsewhere appressed silky-fibrillose, grey-brown, paler towards the margin, sometimes faintly zonate; context thin, less than 1.0 mm thick, grey; odor, not distinctive; taste mild.

• Lamellae

  Gills adnexed to notched, close, moderately broad, dingy greyish-tan; lamellulae up to 3-seried.

• Stipe

  Stipe 4.0-6.0 cm long, 0.5-1.0 mm thick, more or less equal, pliant, hollow to stuffed; surface of apex dull tan-brown, pruinose, darker brown below, covered with scattered lighter colored fibrils, short side branches with swollen tips projecting from the lower two-thirds of the stipe, the stipe often well buried in the substrate.

• Spores

  Sexual spores 4.0-4.5 x 2.0-2.5 µm, ellipsoid, thin-walled, hilar appendage conspicuous, non-amyloid; spore print white. Asexual spores 10.0-15.5 x 3-4 µm, narrowly ellipsoid to oblong, contents granular, non-amyloid.

• Habitat

  Solitary or in small groups growing from a grain-like sclerotium on the decayed remains of decayed mushrooms, or in duff of mixed hardwood-conifer woods; fruiting from late fall to mid-winter.

• Edibility

  Unknown, insignificant.

• Comments

  This easily overlooked small, greyish mushroom is recognized by a stipe with many short, side branches. The branches which end in swollen tips produce asexual spores, presumably a hedge to the sexual spores of the cap. In some specimens asexual reproduction predominates with the cap either greatly reduced or absent. A cousin, Collybia tuberosa, is also small and inconspicuous. Like Collybia racemosa, it grows from a sclerotium on the remains of decayed mushrooms, but can be distinguished by a whitish cap, and the lack of lateral stipe branches.

• References

  Bas, C., Kyper, T.W., Noordeloos, M.E. & Vellinga, E.C. (1995). Flora Agaricina Neerlandica -- Critical monographs on the families of agarics and boleti occuring in the Netherlands. Volume 3. Tricholomataceae. A. A. Balkema: Rotterdam, Netherlands. 183 p.
  Castellano, M.A., Cázares, E., Fondrick, B. & Dreisbach, T. (2003). Handbook to additional fungal species of special concern in the Northwest Forest Plan (Gen. Tech Rep. PNW-GTR-572). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station: Portland, OR. 144 p.
  Hughes, K.W., Petersen, R.H., Johnson, J.E., Moncalvo, J.-M. , Vilgalys, R., Redhead, S.A., Thomas, T. & McGhee, L.A. (2001). Infragenic phylogeny of Collybia s. str. based on sequences of ribosomal ITS and LSU regions. Mycol. Res. 105(2): 164-172.
  Lennox, J.W. (1979). Collybioid genera in the Pacific Northwest. Mycotaxon 9(1): 117-231.

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • Handbook to Additional Fungal Species of Special Concern in the Northwest Forest Plan: Collybia racemosa (D & CP)
  • A revision of Collybia s.l. in the northeastern United States and adjacent Canada: Collybia racemosa (CP)
  • Jens H. Petersen: Collybia racemosa (CP)
  • Arora (1986): p. 213 (D), p. 212 (P)
  • Smith (1975): sp. 109 (D & CP)
  
  

  (D=Description; I=Illustration; P=Photo; CP=Color Photo)