Chrysomphalina chrysophylla
Zeitschrift für Mykologie 48(2): 203. 1982.
Common Name: none
Synonyms: Omphalina chrysophylla (Fries) Murrill; Gerronema chrysophyllum (Fries) Singer
Pileus 1-5 cm broad, convex, broadly so in age, often with a depressed disc; margin incurved at first, becoming decurved, occasionally wavy; surface innately fibrillose to finely scaled, greyish-brown, light-brown to apricot-brown over a dull yellowish ground color, palest at the margin, fading overall in age; flesh thin, pale yellow-orange, unchanging; odor and taste mild.
Gills subdecurrent to decurrent, subdistant, not forked, moderately broad, thin, lamellulae 3-tiered, at first pale-yellow, becoming yellowish-buff.
Stipe 1.5-3.5 cm tall, 2-3.5 mm thick, stuffed to hollow, more or less, equal, round, somewhat brittle; surface glabrous, dull orange-brown (colored like the cap), lighter at the apex; partial veil absent.
Spores 9-14 x 4.5-6 µm, elliptical, smooth, nonamyloid; spore print not seen.
Clustered to gregarious on well decayed conifer wood; fruiting from late fall to early winter.
Unknown.
An attractive but uncommon mushroom, Chrysomphalina chrysophylla is recognized by a convex-depressed, peach-colored cap that is overlain with brownish, appressed fibrils or fine scales. Yellowish gills, a nearly glabrous stipe concolorous with the cap and a lignicolous habit also help to identify this species. Chrysomphalina aurantiaca, is a smaller, more common relative with an orangish cap and stipe and peach-orange, decurrent gills. It also occurs on rotting conifer wood. Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca, another wood rotter, is somewhat similar, but has much brighter, forked gills.
Bigelow, H.E. (1970). Omphalina in North America. Mycologia 62(1): 1-32. (PDF)
Desjardin, D.E., Wood, M.G. & Stevens, F.A. (2015). California Mushrooms: The Comprehensive Identification Guide. Timber Press: Portland, OR. 560 p.
Lodge, D.J. et al. (2014). Molecular phylogeny, morphology, pigment chemistry and ecology in Hygrophoraceae (Agaricales). Fungal Diversity 64(1): 1-99.
Redhead, S.A. (1986). Mycological observations, 17-20, nomenclatural notes on some Omphaloid genera in Canada, Chrysomphalina, Rickenella, Gerronema, Omphalina. Acta Mycologia Sinica Suppl. 1: 297-304.
Siegel, N. & Schwarz, C. (2016). Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 601 p.