Mycena epipterygia
Description
Mycena epipterygia is a species of fungi in the family Mycenaceae of mushrooms commonly found in Europe. It is easily distinguished by its viscid grayish brown to the yellowish brown cap, viscid yellow stipe, white non-marginate gills, and growth on conifer debris.
This mushroom grows almost exclusively on conifers, whereas farther north in the Pacific Northwest, it is commonly found on hardwood debris.
M. epipterygia var. viscosa also occurs in the state but differs in having a strong rancid farinaceous taste, and the stipe base develops sordid brown tones in age.
Only Mycena epipterygia var. epipterygia looks similar; it differs in its colors, which are usually less green, ranging from dull yellow to brownish-yellow - and in its scattered to gregarious, terrestrial habitat.
M. epipterygia is a common species in Western Europe (amongst others Netherlands and Belgium). It grows in diverse habitats: in deciduous and coniferous woods, but it is also found in heather and acid grasslands, amongst grasses and mosses. This species grows on the ground. In Britain, the fruiting bodies appear from August to November.
The species is considered edible but is of little interest in the kitchen.
Common names: Yellowleg Bonnet.
Mushroom Identification
Ecology
Saprobic on the barkless, often mossy, well-decayed deadwood of conifers; growing gregariously; fall; apparently fairly widely distributed in North America.
Cap
Up to about 1.5 cm across; egg-shaped, becoming broadly conic to broadly bell-shaped; sticky when fresh; bald; yellow-green to bright greenish-yellow, fading to dull yellow; the margin sometimes faintly lined; cuticle fairly tough and elastic, peel-able.
Gills
Attached to the stem by a tooth; close or nearly distant; whitish to pale greenish-yellow or yellow.
Stem
4-6 cm long; 1-1.5 mm thick; fragile; equal; bald; sticky; colored like the cap or paler.
Flesh
Insubstantial; yellowish.
Odor and Taste
Odor slightly to moderately mealy or slightly of iodine; taste similar.
Spore Print
White.
Chemical Reactions
KOH negative on cap surface.
Microscopic Features
Spores 7-13 x 5-8 µ; weakly to moderately amyloid; elliptical; smooth. Basidia usually 2-spored. Cheilocystidia abundant; clavate to subglobose or occasionally saccate; covered with numerous rod-like projections. Pleurocystidia absent. Pileipellis an ixocutis.
History
When in 1772 Italian mycologist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli described this little bonnet mushroom he gave it the name Agaricus epipterygius. The currently accepted scientific name Mycena epipterygia dates from 1821, when the British mycologist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766 - 1828) transferred this species to the genus Mycena.
The Yellowleg Bonnet has accumulated quite an array of synonyms including Agaricus epipterygius Scop., Agaricus flavipes Sibth., Agaricus nutans Sowerby, Agaricus citrinellus Pers., Mycena epipterygia var. epipterygia (Scop.) Gray, Mycena flavipes (Sibth.) Gray, Agaricus plicatocrenatus Fr., Mycena citrinella (Pers.) P. Kumm., Mycena plicatocrenata (Fr.) Gillet, and Mycena splendidipes Peck.
The specific epithet epipterygia comes from the prefix epi- meaning upon and pterugion meaning 'resembling a (small) wing'.
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Jerzy Opioła (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo 2 - Author: Holger Krisp (CC BY 3.0)
Photo 3 - Author: Gilles San Martin (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Photo 4 - Author: James Lindsey (CC BY-SA 2.5)
Photo 5 - Author: Sava Krstic (sava) (CC BY-SA 3.0)