Marasmiellus candidus

🏷️ Description

Tiny, delicate, and often overlooked, Marasmiellus candidus is a charming little mushroom that makes its home on fallen twigs, canes, and forest litter. Originally described from Europe, this ghostly fungus is widely distributed in North America 🌎 — with a slight preference for the West Coast — and shows up from summer to fall, or through winter in warmer climates.

Though far too small to grace your dinner plate 🍽️, this species is a fascinating study for mushroom enthusiasts thanks to its subtle color changes, well-spaced gills, and distinctive habitat.

🔎 Identification

🍄 Cap

• Size: 0.24 to 1.57 inches (0.6 to 4 cm) across

• Shape: Convex when young, becoming broadly convex with a depressed center as it ages

• Surface: Dry, bald to slightly pruinose (powdery), later developing radial wrinkles or ridges

• Color: White to whitish, often staining pinkish, buff, or orange-white with age

• Flesh: Very thin, white, soft, fibrous, elastic; unchanging when sliced

🍃 Gills

• Attachment: Adnate to subdecurrent (running slightly down the stem)

• Spacing: Very distant and often with cross-veins near the cap margin

• Color: White, becoming pinkish with age

• Structure: Intervenose (with cross-connections) and short-gills (lamellulae) present

🌱 Stem

• Size: 0.16 to 0.79 inches (4 to 20 mm) long × 0.02 to 0.16 inches (0.5 to 4 mm) thick

• Shape: Equal or slightly tapering, sometimes curved, central or eccentric

• Surface: Dry, bald to delicately pruinose (frosted), with a pubescent to fibrillose (hairy) base

• Color: White when young, often turning brownish-gray to blackish from the base upward

• Attachment: Fixed to the substrate by a tiny pad of whitish fuzz (mycelium)

🧪 Microscopic Features

Spores:

• Size: 11–19 × 3.5–6.5 µm

• Shape: Long-ellipsoid to lacrymoid (teardrop-shaped), sometimes subfusiform

• Features: Smooth, hyaline (transparent), multiguttulate (with oil droplets), inamyloid (not staining in iodine)

Cheilocystidia: 50–100 µm long × 2.5–5 µm wide Filamentous to needle-like (aciculate), with subacute or rounded tips

Pileipellis (cap surface): A cutis (layer of hyphae running parallel to the surface), smooth, hyaline, occasionally with diverticula (outgrowths)

Spore Print: White

Chemical Reaction: KOH negative on cap surface

🌳 Ecology & Distribution

Marasmiellus candidus is a saprobic species, helping to break down dead organic material. It grows alone, scattered, or gregariously on:

• Dead twigs, canes, and small logs

• Forest litter in hardwood and conifer forests

• Occasionally on dead needles and leaves

📅 Season: Summer to late autumn; persists into winter in mild climates

🌎 Distribution: Widespread in North America and rare in Europe (critically endangered in Switzerland 🇨🇭)

🎨 Similar Species

Tetrapyrgos nigripes: Looks similar but has slightly less distant gills and a stem that inserts directly into the substrate without the fuzzy pad seen in M. candidus. Under the microscope, the two are unmistakable.

🍽️ Edibility

Not known to be edible. Too tiny to be of culinary interest — but a delight for naturalists and photographers 📸!

💭 Final Thoughts

Marasmiellus candidus is a lovely little woodland sprite, easily recognized by its tiny white cap, widely spaced gills, and tendency to blush pinkish with age. Its presence is a gentle reminder of the intricate world of fungi quietly working in the forest undergrowth 🌲✨.

📜 Synonyms

• Agaricus candidus Bolton (1788)

• Agaricus albus corticisSecretan (1833)

• Marasmius candidus (Bolton) Fries (1838)

• Marasmius salignus var. major Peck (1888)

• Chamaeceras candidus (Bolton) Kuntze (1898)

• Marasmius magnisporus Murrill (1912)

• Marasmiellus albus-corticis (Secretan) Singer (1951)

• Marasmiellus corticis Korf (1986)

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: KR (Public Domain)

Photo 2 - Author: Jonathan Curley (CC BY 4.0)

Photo 3 - Author: nan (CC BY 4.0)

Photo 4 - Author: Mandy Hackney (CC BY 4.0)