Description

1. Hyphae of the pileipellis, 2. Cheilocystidia, 3. Spores, 4. Hyphae of the cortical layer of the stem, 5. Caulocystidia.

Cap 5-25 mm across, parabolical or conical to campanulate, flattening with age, shallowly sulcate, translucent-striate, at first pruinose, then viscid, covered with a completely separable, tough, gelatinous pellicle, pale greyish citrine, yellowish grey, greenish yellow, olivaceous yellow, greenish brown, pale grey-brown, olive brown, pale sepia brown, dark red-brown, black-brown, but also whitish or with some purplish, olivaceous or citrine shade, the margin more or less scalloped, concolorous to somewhat paler. Odour indistinctive, faintly fragrant to farinaceous or disagreeable and rancid when cut. Gills 17-23 reaching the stem, narrowly to broadly adnate, decurrent with a tooth, smooth to somewhat ribbed, at first whitish to very pale citrine, turning very pale greyish, not infrequently becoming flushed with a more or less pronounced pink shade, sometimes becoming stained with reddish brown spots, the edge gelatinized, separable as a tough, elastic thread, concolorous. Stem 45-80 x 1-2 mm, cylindrical, somewhat elastic to fragile, equal, smooth, viscid, minutely puberulous above, at first citrine or greenish yellow, gradually turning pale yellow to pale greyish or whitish, at times reddening with age, the base covered with long, coarse, white fibrils. Basidia 27-35 x 7-8 µm, clavate, generally 4-spored but also 2-spored, with sterigmata up to 7 µm long. Spores 8-11 x 4.5-5.8 µm (in 2-spored forms 9-13.5 x 7-8 µm), Q = 1.8-2.2, Qav = 2, pip-shaped to broadly pip-shaped, amyloid. Cheilocystidia 12.5-55 x 4.5-10 µm forming a sterile band, embedded in gelatinous matter, clavate, covered with fairly few, unevenly spaced, rather coarse, simple to furcate or branched, cylindrical to somewhat inflated excrescences 2-14.5 x 1-4.5 µm. Pleurocystidia absent. Lamellar trama dextrinoid. Hyphae of the pileipellis 1-3.5 µm wide, embedded in gelatinous matter, branched, anastomosing, covered with simple to branched excrescences 1-10 x 1-2.5 µm, terminal cells up to 6.5 µm wide. Hyphae of the cortical layer of the stem 1-3.5 µm wide, embedded in gelatinous matter, smooth or very sparsely covered with cylindrical excrescences 1-7 x 1-2.5 µm, terminal cells 4.5-8 µm wide, subcylindrical or clavate, covered with a few to more numerous rather coarse excrescences. Clamps present in all tissues.

Ecology and distribution

Solitary to gregarious among mosses, in mires and dwarf shrub heaths, along brooks and roadsides. Summer to autumn. Very common all over the country.