Lichenomphalia umbellifera
Mycotaxon 83: 38. 2002.
Common Name: none
Synonyms: Omphalina umbellifera (L.) Quél.; Omphalina ericetorum (Pers.) M. Lange; Phytoconis ericetorum Redhead & Kuyper; Gerronema ericetorum (Pers. : Fr.) Sing.; Botrydina vulgaris Bréb.
Cap 5-15 mm broad, convex with depressed disc, infundibuliform in age, margin decurved, translucent-striate to sulcate. Surface dry, glabrous, cinnamon to brownish, yellowish in age. Odor and taste indistinct.
Gills decurrant, distant, moderately broad. Pale yellowish.
Stipe 10–25 × 1–2 mm, cylindrical, glabrous above with white tomentum at base. Apex vinaceous brown, paler below.
Spores 7–9 (–10) × 4–6 (–7) µm, broadly ellipsoid, smooth, inamyloid, hyaline, and white in deposit. The hyphae are unclamped and hymenial cystidia are absent.
Solitary to gregarious, typically on rotting conifer logs, occasionally in damp soil. It is rare south of Northern California, being common in the Pacific Northwest and north to the arctic.
Unknown.
This small omphaloid mushroom is actually a lichen. The mycelium of Lichenomphalia umbellifera is symbiotically associated with the green alga Coccomyxa and forms tiny, granulose to globular bodies near the base of the agaric that were originally described as Botrydina vulgaris. Botrydina was considered a primitive lichen and has a complex arrangement of algal cells in a compact hyphal system.
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