Mycena leptocephala

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by Michael Kuo

Gray to black Mycena species are not the easiest mushrooms to identify, but Mycena leptocephala has several distinguishing features, including a strong bleach-like odor, terrestrial habitat under conifers, and a fairly large cap (for a Mycena). Under a microscope, the species has abundant, spindle-shaped cystidia on the gill edges, but few on the gill faces.

Many small mushrooms have distinctive odors, best detected by crushing one of the caps between your finger and thumb, then taking a whiff. Aside from the smell of bleach, other distinctive odors include a mealy smell (reminiscent of watermelon rind or cucumbers), an odor of radishes, and an odor of garlic or onions. Often a distinctive odor is strong enough that a subsequent taste test is not needed. However, people's noses work differently and I, for example, have trouble detecting "radish-like" as an odor, though the taste registers clear as a bell with my taste buds.

Edibility is not known for Mycena leptocephala, but eating it would be like dining on Clorox.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic on conifer debris; growing scattered to gregariously under various conifers; summer and fall; widely distributed in North America.

Cap: 1-4 cm; conical when young, becoming broadly conical, convex, or broadly bell-shaped; moist; with a whitish bloom when young, but soon smooth; black or dark gray, fading somewhat with age; the margin faintly lined at first, later becoming more strongly lined.

Gills: Attached to the stem by a tooth; nearly distant; whitish or pale grayish.

Stem: 4-6 cm long; 1-2 mm thick; fragile; equal; hollow; with a whitish bloom at first, but soon smooth; black at first, becoming grayish or brownish gray.

Flesh: Insubstantial; pallid or grayish.

Taste: Strongly bleachlike; odor of crushed flesh strongly bleachlike.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 7-10 x 4-6 µ; amyloid; elliptical; smooth. Pleurocystidia rare or absent. Cheilocystidia abundant; 30-45 µ long; fusoid-ventricose or clavate (when clavate sometimes with finger-like projections).

REFERENCES: (Fries, 1821) Gillet, 1874. (Kauffman, 1918; Smith, 1947.) Herb. Kuo 11220401.

Mycena alcalina is a nearly identical to the naked eye (and nose). However, it grows on conifer wood and is rarely terrestrial; additionally, it has numerous cystidia on the gill edges.

Further Online Information:

Mycena leptocephala in Smith, 1947
Mycena leptocephala at Mycenas of Norway

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2004, November). Mycena leptocephala. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/mycena_leptocephala.html