Mycena niveipes

[ Basidiomycetes > Agaricales > Tricholomataceae > Mycena . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

Among the species of Mycena with a bleach-like odor (crush one of the caps between your finger and thumb), Mycena niveipes can be recognized by the fact that it grows on the deadwood of hardwoods and features a pale grayish to brownish cap that soon fades to nearly white, along with a silvery stem that is often finely grooved and covered with tiny white fibers. Under the microscope, it features very long, fusiform cystidia. Mycena alcalina is similar and also grows on wood, but has a darker cap and somewhat shorter cystidia.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic on the well decayed, mossy deadwood (stumps and logs) of hardwoods (especially the wood of oaks, ashes, and maples); growing gregariously or in loose clusters; spring through fall; widely distributed in North America from the Great Plains eastward.

Cap: 1.5-7 cm; broadly conical, broadly bell-shaped, convex, or planoconvex; moist when fresh; bald; pale grayish to pale brownish when young, fading to whitish, sometimes with a slightly darker center; the margin faintly lined at first, later becoming more strongly lined and often splitting in age.

Gills: Attached to the stem by a tooth; close or nearly distant; whitish or pale grayish (occasionally faintly pinkish).

Stem: 4-10 cm long; 2-7 mm thick; fragile; equal; hollow; adorned with tiny whitish fibers at first, but often bald by maturity; silvery grayish at first, becoming whitish; sometimes discoloring a little brownish in the basal half with age or on handling; basal mycelium white.

Flesh: Insubstantial; pallid or grayish.

Odor and Taste: Odor usually strongly bleachlike but sometimes only weakly so, or not distinctive (especially in older specimens); taste acidic and unpleasant.

Spore Print: White.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on cap surface.

Microscopic Features: Spores 8-11 x 5-7 µ; weakly to moderately amyloid; elliptical; smooth. Basidia 2- or 4-spored. Cheilocystidia abundant; up to 90 x 15 µ; fusoid-ventricose, without digitate projections. Pleurocystidia similar to cheilocystidia. Pileipellis a cutis.

REFERENCES: Murrill, 1916. (Saccardo, 1925; Smith, 1947; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1979; Hansen & Knudsen, 1992; McNeil, 2006.) Herb. Kuo 05149502, 06019511, 10090301, 08290502, 09170602.

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Spores

Cheilocystidia

Pleurocystidia

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Kuo, M. (2010, December). Mycena niveipes. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/mycena_niveipes.html