Marasmius felix

[ Basidiomycetes > Agaricales > Marasmiaceae > Marasmius . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

If you have picked this tiny mushroom in the woods and brought it home for identification without paying much attention to your surroundings or thinking about the mushroom's ecology, you're not going to have much luck identifying it if you don't have a microscope and lots of patience.

On the other hand, if you know that you were picking mushrooms in Cottonwood-Sycamore lowlands, and you noticed that the mushrooms were growing from the petioles of fallen sycamore leaves, identifying Marasmius felix is a cinch, since this appears to be its only ecological milieu. How cool is that? The sycamore, which reaches heights of over 100 feet, has evolved alongside Marasmius felix, which reaches heights of about 80 millimeters!

I have no information on the edibility of Marasmius felix. I also have no information on the edibility of those little paper circles produced by your three-hole punch, which are equally appetizing.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic on fallen leaves of Sycamore trees (usually on leaves from the preceding year); growing alone or gregariously from petioles or major veins; summer, fall, and winter (see comments below); probably to be expected throughout the range of the tree (east of the Great Plains, south of the Great Lakes).

Cap: 1.5-7 mm across; convex, becoming planoconvex; usually pleated by maturity; often somewhat wrinkled; dry; at first nearly white, becoming pinkish or pale pinkish brown with age.

Gills: Attached to the stem, often by means of a collar that may or may not completely encircle the stem; distant; whitish or faintly pinkish.

Stem: 10-85 mm long; less than 1 mm thick; equal; dry; wiry; sometimes slightly hairy; inserted directly into the leaf; translucent near apex, brownish below; occasionally branched.

Flesh: Thin; insubstantial.

Odor and Taste: Taste mild; odor not distinctive.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 8-8.5 x 3-3.5 µ; smooth; somewhat spindle shaped. Cystidia present on gill faces and edges. Pileipellis with smooth cells and cystidia similar to gill cystidia.

REFERENCES: Morgan, 1906. (Saccardo, 1912; Gilliam, 1976; Doyle & Sundberg, 1989.) Herb. Kuo 09230607.

Doyle & Sundberg (1989) note that Marasmius felix can often be discovered in cold weather, since it grows on year-old sycamore leaves that are often covered by the current year's leaves, which apparently provide protection from the elements.

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2006, October). Marasmius felix. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/marasmius_felix.html