Crinipellis piceae
Rev. Mycol. 4: 64. 1939.
Common Name: none
For description see Singer, Siegel & Schwarz, & 'California Mushrooms'.
Solitary to scattered to gregarious, inserted on needles of Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis); fruiting from fall to mid-winter in northern coastal spruce forests; common.
Unknown, totally inconsequential.
Crinipellis piceae can be distinguished by its tiny fruitbodies with brown fibrillose cap, white gills, and wiry, pubescent stipe, and growth on needles of Sitka spruce. In California, Crinipellis piceae may be confused with Gymnopus androsaceus or Marasmius pallidocephalus, which occur occasionally in the same habitat, but they have a smooth cap and stipe and copious black basal rhizomorphs and lack long dextrinoid hairs in the pileipellis.
Arora, D. (1986). Mushrooms Demystified. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 959 p.
Desjardin, Dennis E. (1985). The Marasmioid Fungi of California. Masters Thesis. San Francisco State University: San Francisco, CA. 287 p.
Desjardin, Dennis E. (1987). The Agaricales (Gilled Fungi) of California. 7. Tricholomataceae I. Marasmioid Fungi. Mad River Press: Eureka, CA. 100 p.
Desjardin, D.E., Wood, M.G. & Stevens, F.A. (2015). California Mushrooms: The Comprehensive Identification Guide. Timber Press: Portland, OR. 560 p.
Siegel, N. & Schwarz, C. (2016). Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 601 p.
Singer, R. (1942). A monographic study of the genera Crinipellis and Chaetocalathus. Lilloa 8: 441-543. (PDF)
