Baeospora myosura
What You Should Know
Baeospora myosura is a species of fungus that produces mushrooms with long, coarse hairs. It grows on plant material and manure. It is white to cream and the spore color is white, cream, or yellowish. The cap is slightly rolled around the slats at the edge. The upper part is finely powdered, the underground part has prominent, stiff hairs. It is commonly found in North America and Europe. It is regarded as nonpoisonous and has no culinary value.
Up to 20 or more fruiting bodies can appear on a single spruce cone, often a large number of young tiny smaller ones in addition to fully grown ones.
Other names: Conifer-Cone Baeospora, Conifercone Cap, Conifer Conecap, Spruce-Cone Mushroom, Mäuseschwanz-Rübling (German), Muizenstaartzwam (Netherlands), Penízečka Drobnovýtrusá (Czech Republic).
Baeospora myosura Mushroom Identification
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Cap
1-3 cm across; convex, becoming broadly convex or flat; dry or slightly moist; bald or very slightly silky; light brown, fading markedly to buff from the margin inward; the margin not lined, or very faintly lined at maturity.
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Gills
Narrowly attached to the stem or nearly free from it; crowded; whitish; sometimes developing brownish spots.
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Stem
1.5-5 cm long and 1-2 mm thick; equal; finely powdery or hairy; whitish to brownish; base attached to conspicuous rhizomorphs.
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Flesh
Whitish; insubstantial.
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Odor and Taste
Not distinctive.
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Chemical Reactions
KOH negative or faintly olive on cap surface.
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Spore Print
White.
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Habitat
Saprobic; decomposing the fallen cones of spruces and pines (especially those of Norway spruce, eastern white pine, Douglas-fir, and Sitka spruce); growing alone or gregariously; widely distributed in North America.
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Season
July to November.
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Microscopic Features
Spores 3-4.5 x 1.5-2 µ; elliptical to nearly cylindric; smooth; amyloid. Pleuro- and cheilocystidia clavate to fusiform; up to 40 µ long and 10 µ wide; pleurocystidia rare; cheilocystidia abundant. Pileipellis a thin cutis of clamped cylindric elements 4-14 µ wide above a subcellular subcutis.
Baeospora myosura Look-Alikes
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In the spring (less often also in the autumn) the pine cones grow stringy moneyworm and do not have a downy stem.
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Strobilurus tenacellus
Bitter moneyworm with always smooth (shiny) rubs.
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The spruce moneyworm, related to both, grows mainly in early spring on spruce cones, less often in autumn or during mild winter.
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Mycena strobilicola
Grows on the cones with a bell-shaped or cone-shaped cap and a noticeable nitrous smell.
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Strobilurus truillisatus
Has a cellular-type cuticle and somewhat larger, inamyloid spores.
Baeospora myosura Taxonomy and Etymology
In 1818 Elias Magnus Fries described this species and named it Agaricus myosura. In 1938 American mycologist Rolf Singer transferred it to the currently-accepted scientific name Baeospora myosura.
The word "Baeospora" comes from the Greek baeo, meaning "small," and the suffix -spora, meaning spore. The specific epithet myosura comes from Latin and means "rat tail" and refers to the curved shape of most of the stems of the conifer cap fungus.
Baeospora myosura Synonyms
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Collybia myosura (Fr.) Quél., 1872
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Agaricus myosurus Fr. 1818 (basionym)
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Baeospora myosura f. myosura (Fr. ) Singer 1938
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Baeospora myosura f. xeruloides A. Ortega & Esteve-Rav. 2003
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Chamaeceras varicosus (Fr.) Kuntze 1898
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Collybia clavus var. myosura (Fr. ) Quél. 1886
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Collybia clavus var. myosura (Fries) Quélet 1886
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Collybia conigena (Pers.) P. Kumm. 1871
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Collybia friesii Bres. 1928
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Collybia myosura (Fr.) Quél. 1872
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Marasmius conigenus (Pers.) P. Karst. 1889
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Marasmius conigenus sensu Rea 1922
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Marasmius friesii (Bres. ) Rea 1932
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Marasmius friesii (Bres.) Rea 1932
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Marasmius myosurus (Fr.) P. Karst. 1889
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Marasmius varicosus Fr. 1838
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Mycena myosura (Fr.) Kühner 1938
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Mycena myosura subsp. myosura (Fr.) Kühner 1938
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Mycena myosura subsp. varicosa (Fr.) Kühner 1938
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Pseudohiatula conigena (Pers.) Métrod 1952
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Strobilurus conigenus (Pers.) Gulden 1966
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