August 21st.
It had been raining. I had found small, white mushrooms on the ledge above the
creek at our place and then found them throughout a section of the north-facing
trail at Fort Yargo State Park. I took the time to find, and photograph, a
particularly attractive cluster of mushrooms that were growing on a small twig.
I suspected that
they were members of the family Marasmiaceae that contains tiny mushrooms that
are often easily overlooked in the woods. Marasmid mushrooms break down leaf
litter in oak/hickory woods in eastern North America. Unlike most marasmid
mushrooms, it would be very hard not to notice these mushrooms with their white
caps, tiny as they are.
I decided to try
and work my way through the identification keys. I always find identification keys
frustrating if I haven’t managed to collect all the information necessary to
answer the questions. But this time I was in luck.
#1 Decaying tree
litter; they were growing on tree leaves and twigs.
#10 On debris of
hardwoods; these mushrooms were growing on a hardwood twig.
#27 Growing on
debris of other hardwoods (other than madrone, tanoak, sycamore, black locust,
birch, quacking aspen, black cottonwood, or American holly); none of these trees grew in these woods.
#38 Odor not
distinctive (somewhat foul, spermatic, bleachlike, mealy, or radishlike – but
not of garlic); these mushrooms had no detectable odor.
#41 Fresh cap
otherwise colored (not rose pink, red, purplish red, or wine colored); the caps
were white.
#46 Mature cap
rarely as wide as 2-3 cm; stem wiry or not; the caps were usually less than an
inch in diameter.
#53 Fresh cap white
or nearly; the caps were certainly white.
#54 Cap smooth to
wrinkled or faintly linked but not conspicuously pleated; the caps were
wrinkled.
#56 Not as above
(caps larger than 2 mm maximum width; not growing on leaves of American beech);
the caps were larger than 2 mm and were not growing on leaves or twigs of
American beeches.
#57 Stem surface
finely to prominently hairy; hairs were certainly visible on the stems of these
mushrooms without having to use a magnifying glass.
#59 At least the
bottom portion of the stem darkening to brown, dark brown, or black with
maturity; the stems were dark brown/black at the base, progressing to white
just below the cap.
I got to question ...
#61 Stem black except at the apex (at the cap); spores
triangular to jack shaped: and there it was... Tetrapyrgos
nigripes.
Now I didn’t have
spores, but the description of Tetrapyrgos
nigripes fit these little mushrooms to a ‘T.’ Their caps were white and
pleasantly wrinkled and usually less than 1 inch in diameter. Their stems were
dark brown or black at the base and becoming progressively lighter up the stem
until they were white near the cap. Hairs were visible on the stem. In addition,
they exhibited a characteristic not mentioned in the keys - the stems of these
mushrooms appear to be attached to the substrate stem or leaf without any
apparent basal mycelium, the vegetative material of the fungus. In fact, it
looked as if they grew directly out of the wood.
These mushrooms are
distributed widely distributed east of the Mississippi River. In spite of
apparently being relatively common, I hadn’t seen reports of them and it took
me several years to identify them. In fact, I had misidentified them as a
Marasmius sp. several years ago.
When I shared
photographs of these mushrooms on Facebook, many people commented on having
seen them in nearby woods. Too bad these little mushrooms have gone
unacknowledged.
Next time you see
these in the woods, spare a few minutes to take a closer look at these little
gems.
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