Notes: Found on the Pt. Reyes micoblitz. Now after looking at a few dozen “Galerina” samples (and Conocybe, Pholiotina, Tubaria, Psilocybe and Pholiota too…), I’ve got some id’s here.

This one is G. unicolor, which is in the G. autumnalis/G. marginata “group”. At least in terms of Smith and Singer, Galerina of North America, 1964. These stirps are similar species that are small, brown, have a clear annulus, growth on woody debris, and a light brown spore print. The two stirps are separated by the cap cuticle, it is viscid in the G. autumnalis stirps, and not in the G. marginata stirps.

These are not viscid, and have a cap cutis. This is seen in the second micro-shot. This is of the cap surface in radial section, in Meltzer’s at 400×. The suface hyphae are aligned, with no gelatin matrix.

The spores are displayed in the third micro-shot, this is at 1000x in KOH, and the spores are from some veil tissue. The spores have a wrinkled surface, and it cal almost be seen that they have a plage, with a rough edge. This is easier to see comparing a few spores while adjusting the focus in and out, but hard to photograph clearly. The spore sizes here are 9.8 × 5.7 microns on 23 spores measured.

The first micro-shot here is of cheilocystidia, and this is at 400x in Meltzer’s. Here the cystidia are ventricose and sub-acute (fat bottom, thiner necks, and blunt ends). There are also pluerocysidia on the gill edges, but I didn’t include a photo of those.

With the pleurocystidia, wrinkled spores, a clear plage, a clear annulus, glabrous hygrophanous cap, and no pileocysidia, and non-viscid, this puts it in the stirps G. marginata. The size and shape of the spores and cystidia, and the whitish annulus with whitish fibers below, puts this as the species G. unicolor.

But after all that, in recent molecular work, G. unicolor along with G. autumnalis were equated with G. marginata. But I’ll list this as G. unicolor, since it is a better match for that taxon in the Smith and Singer monograph.