Key to Gilled Mushrooms KeyThis is a key to gilled mushrooms, that is, mushrooms having a definite cap with a fertile surface consisting of gills. The fruiting body usually also has a stem, although that may be lateral or absent (usually, then, the mushroom is growing from wood). You can use this key to identify mushrooms that you find.
Agaricales OrderFruiting body containing fibers (usually in the stalk)
White Spored SuborderSpore print "light-colored": white or buff, sometimes tinged with pink or tan. Greenish and (except for the Russulales) yellow spore prints also go here
Stalk fibrous, not fracturing like a piece of chalk
Tricholomataceae FamilyNone of the special features distinguishing the other white-spored genera:
Gills not free, as in the Lepiotas and Amanitas
Basidia not extra-long, as in the Hygrophoraceae
Spores smooth, except for Lentinellus
Lignicolous Trich SubfamilyGrowing on trees or dead wood, leaves, or sticks, or organic debris, often in moss
Normal LignoTrich TribeShaped like a “normal mushroom”
Small and fragile to medium-sized, except for one large, grey-capped species
Small Ligno Trich SubtribeFruiting body small: cap up to 1 1/4" across (and most clearly smaller than that)
Marasmiellus Genus Murrill
Diagnosis
- Cap usually white; convex becoming flat, plicate in maturity; often thin to the point of being translucent
-
Gills usually very, very distant ("few and far between" says Arora (1986) ), often forking or with cross-veins
-
Stem thin but not wiry; often much darker than cap, at least towards the base in maturity
-
Often with wiry rhizomorphs
Microscropic Characters
Narrow down your identification:
Marasmiellus albuscortisCap up to 1 1/4" across; convex becoming flat, plicate; white, aging deeper and deeper pink
Stalk 1-1.5mm thick, concolorous with cap but darkening to black from the base up in age
On twigs and stems of blackberry, raspberry, and other Rubers
Marasmiellus nigripesCap up to 3/4" across, rubbbery-gelatinous in texture; white, bruising faintly reddish
Stalk 1-1.5 mm thick, hollow, concolorous with cap but darkening to black from the base up in age, covered with minute white hairs; attached to wiry black rhizomorphs
On twigs and leaves of many different species