When: 1996-02-15
Collection location: Mar Vista, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Co., California, USA [Click for map]
Who: Nathan Wilson (nathan)
No herbarium specimen

Notes: The date is only accurate to the month.

Initially I thought this was a Marasmius species, but I couldn’t find any matching description. I later found the same mushroom in a lawn in Burbank, California. These I sent to Fred Stevens who made the following analysis with the help of Dr. Dennis Dejardin:

The pileipellis in radial section proved to be a cutis, slightly gelatinized. That along with dextrinoid cap, gill and stipe tissue plus amyloid spores pointed away from Marasmius and towards Mycena, with M. pura group the best candidate. Dennis took a look at the specimen and concurred. I’ve enclosed part of his email below:

“The pileipellis is a simple cutis of smooth, non-diverticulate and non-spinulose hyphae with clamps; the spores are amyloid. In combination these features remove Marasmius and other marasmioid fungi from consideration. The combination of simple, non-diverticulate pileipellis, dextrinoid tramal tissues, amyloid spores, and fusoid to clavate pleuro- and cheilocystidia make the species a Mycena in Sect. Calodontes, subsect. Purae. Maas Geesteranus would call this one of the many varieties of Mycena pura! This is a group that needs much work. Your material does not key any further than M. pura in his work, nor in any other work. It is certainly not the true M. pura, but nonetheless is allied with that species. There is another species, Mycena dura, with a brown pileus and pale brown stipe, that looks like M. pura…your material may be close to this one too.”

So, since we did the hard part, putting a rough name on this thing, how about doing a molecular study of the M. pura group? just kidding

Proposed Names:   Propose Another Name

Proposed Name		User		Community Vote
Mycena sp.		nathan		28% (1)
Prunulus sp.		nathan		85% (1)
Recognized by sight: See notes. Based on microscopic features: The pileipellis in radial section proved to be a cutis, slightly gelatinized. See notes for more details. Based on chemical features: The dextrinoid cap, gill and stipe tissue plus amyloid spores point away from Marasmius and towards Mycena/Prunulus, with P. purus group the best candidate.
Prunulus purus (Pers.) Murrill		nathan		57% (1)
Recognized by sight: Adding this name so it shows up in searches. It is also technical the best species name we currently have.

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= Observer’s choice

= Current consensus

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Observation Created: Sun May 21 00:22:54 -0700 2006
Last Modified: Fri Jan 04 22:04:12 -0800 2008 by Nathan Wilson (nathan)
Viewed: 11 times, last viewed: Fri May 29 17:39:41 -0700 2009
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