Major Groups > Mycotrophs > Collybia cookei
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Collybia cookei

[ Basidiomycetes > Agaricales > Tricholomataceae > Collybia . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

One of three species still remaining in the once-vast genus Collybia, Collybia cookei grows from the ground or from the blackened remains of other, larger mushrooms. Its stems are attached to "sclerotia"--little knots of tissue buried in the substrate. You'll need to pry around and uncover the sclerotia if you want to identify Collybia cookei, since it has roundish, yellowish sclerotia; the similar Collybia tuberosa has ellipsoid, reddish brown sclerotia--while Collybia cirrhata lacks sclerotia.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic; growing gregariously on the remains of decayed mushrooms or on humus (occasionally on well rotted wood); found under hardwoods or conifers; summer and fall; fairly widely distributed in North America.

Cap: 2-9 mm; convex with a somewhat inrolled margin when young, becoming broadly convex to flat, with or without a shallow central depression; dry or moist; more or less bald; whitish to buff, sometimes with a darker central area.

Gills: Attached to the stem; close or almost distant; whitish.

Stem: 1-6 cm long; 1-2 mm thick; more or less equal; dry; whitish; becoming hollow; attached to sclerotia which are more or less round, yellowish to orangish yellow, and measure 4-10 mm.

Flesh: Whitish; thin.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 4.5-6 x 3-3.5 µ; smooth; ellipsoid or sublacrymoid; inamyloid. Pleuro- and cheilocystidia absent. Pileipellis a cutis or ixocutis of cylindric elements 3.5-7 µ wide; with scattered, rare pileocystidia.


REFERENCES: (Bresadola, 1928) Arnold, 1935 (Lennox, 1979; Halling, 1983; Evenson, 1997; Villarruel-Ordaz & Cifuentes, 1999; Halling, 2003.) Herb. Kuo 09150705.


This site contains no information about the edibility or toxicity of mushrooms.


 

Collybia cookei

Collybia cookei
Sclerotia

Collybia cookei
Spores



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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2013, February). Collybia cookei. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/collybia_cookei.html