Phaeocollybia californica
Brittonia 9: 216. 1957.
Common Name: none
For description see Norvell & Exeter & 'California Mushrooms'.
Gregarious to clustered in soil in mixed hardwood-conifer forests (Douglas fir, redwood, oak, tanbark oak, madrone); occasional, fruiting from fall through mid-winter in coastal forests from Santa Cruz Co. northward.
Unknown.
Phaeocollybia californica is distinguished by its growth in dense, fasciculate clusters in mixed forests along the north coast. It is recognized by a small cinnamon-brown cap, white to pale cinnamon-buff gills when young, and white to reddish brown hollow stipes. Phaeocollybia attenuata is another small, similarly colored species but with a dry to lubricous cap, narrower dark brown to black stipe, subclavate cheilocystidia, and fruitbodies growing singly, not in clusters.
Arora, D. (1986). Mushrooms Demystified. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 959 p.
Castellano, M.A., Smith, J.E., O'Dell, T., Cázares, E. & Nugent, S. (1999). Handbook to Strategy 1 Fungal Species in the Northwest Forest Plan. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station: Portland, OR. 195 p. (PDF)
Desjardin, D.E., Wood, M.G. & Stevens, F.A. (2015). California Mushrooms: The Comprehensive Identification Guide. Timber Press: Portland, OR. 560 p.
Norvell, L. & Exeter, R.L. (2009). Phaeocollybia of Pacific Northwest North America. US Department of Interior, BLM: Salem, OR. 229 p. (PDF)
Siegel, N. & Schwarz, C. (2016). Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 601 p.
Smith, A.H. (1957). A contribution toward a monograph of Phaeocollybia. Brittonia 9: 195-217. (Protologue) (PDF)
