Scattered on debris of various deciduous trees as well as on fallen needles of coniferous trees (e. g. Juniperus and Picea). Summer to autumn. Very common and widely distributed all over the country. See the records in The Norwegian Mycological Database.
Pileus up to 25 mm across, conical to campanulate, more or less umbonate, somewhat flattening with age, the margin sometimes flaring and upturned with age, sulcate, translucent-striate, pruinose, glabrescent, somewhat lubricous, grey, grey-brown to fairly dark sepia brown, darker at the centre, the margin paler. Odour indistinctive, of earth or raphanoid. Lamellae 13-18(-23) reaching the stipe, ascending, narrowly to somewhat broader adnate, sometimes decurrent with a short tooth, smooth to veined, becoming dorsally intervenose with age, at first whitish, then brownish white to pale grey-brown, edge whitish. Stipe up to 85 x 3 mm, hollow, somewhat elastic, equal or somewhat broadening downward, terete, straight to curved, somewhat pruinose all over, glabrescent for the greater part, exuding a milk white fluid when incised or broken, grey-brown, paler above, darker below, the base densely covered with long, coarse, white fibrils.
Basidia 25-36(-49) x 7-9 µm, clavate, 4-spored, with sterigmata up to 7 µm long. Spores 11-14 x 5-6 µm, elongated pip-shaped to almost cylindrical, smooth, amyloid. Cheilocystidia 39-95 x 8-18 µm, locally forming a sterile band, generally fusiform but also clavate to obovoid, simple to furcated, more rarely with coarse, lateral or apical excrescences. Pleurocystidia fusiform. Lamellar trama dextrinoid. Hyphae of the pileipellis 1-3.5 µm wide, branched, sparsely to densely covered with excrescences 2-4.5 x 1-2 µm, tending to become somewhat gelatinized. Hyphae of the cortical layer of the stipe 1.5-4.5 µm wide, covered with widely spaced to more crowded, simple to furcated excrescences 1.5-10 x 1-2 µm, the terminal cells smooth to diverticulate, up to 4.5 µm wide. Clamp connections present.
Mycena galopus is easily identified on account of the milk white fluid in the stipe. Sometimes, in dry specimens the fluid may not be visible and then it is not easy in the field to separate from other grey-brown species. In these cases it can be identified by microscopic features as the large, narrow spores and large, fusiform cheilo- and pleurocystidia.
Both a very dark brown to black form and a white form have been described in the literature and are known as var. leucogala and var. candida.
At this site Mycena leucogala is considered as a species.
Further images on the Internet:
Nahuby.sk
Die
Pilze Pilze Galerie
Fungi
of Poland
http://home.att.net/~mushroomhunt/Mycena_galopus.htm |
