Mycena vitilis

What You Should Know

Mycena vitilis is an inedible little gray-brown mushroom in the family Mycenaceae. It is quite variable but it is seldom difficult to identify. It has no striking character in the field, however, except for the slippery, lubricous, and elastic-firm stipe, which tends to be very shiny when dry.

The variously shaped cheilocystidia are of good use for identification as well as the densely diverticulate hyphae of the pileipellis and the smooth and gelatinized hyphae of the stipe cortex. An important character is that this species lacks clamp connections.

It is found in Europe and North America, where it grows on the ground among leaves in damp places, especially under alder.

The fruit bodies of Mycena vitilis contain the chlorinated compound strobilurin B. Strobilurins are aromatic compounds produced by some fungi that help them secure resources by giving them an advantage against other competing fungi. They have been investigated for potential use as lead compounds for agricultural fungicides.

Other names: Snapping Bonnet.

Mycena vitilis Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   0.5 to 1.8 cm (but usually <1 cm) in diameter; conical, becoming bell-shaped and eventually sometimes flattening with an umbo; smooth with marginal lines corresponding to the gills; various shades of beige or grayish brown, usually paler near the margin. The cap surface is pruinose at first but soon becomes smooth; shiny when dry and sticky when wet.

2. Gills

   Adnexed to almost free; whitish. Gill edges are very finely serrate.

3. Stem

   6 to 12 cm long and 1.5 to 2 mm in diameter; various shades of brownish-gray sometimes with a pinkish tinge; smooth with a slightly greasy feel, but woolly at the stem base; no stem ring. Stems are flexible and can be bent significantly without breaking. When stretched the stem breaks with an audible 'snap'.

4. Spores

   Ellipsoidal, smooth, 9-12.2 by 5-6 μm; hyaline, amyloid.

5. Spore Print

   White.

6. Cheilocystidia

   Up to 50 µm in length (exceptionally to 70 µm), irregularly claviform (club-shaped) with one or more apical extensions.

7. Pleurocystidia

   Absent.

8. Habitat & Ecological Role

   Saprobic. Look out for these neat little mushrooms in deciduous broadleaf woodlands or in mixed woodlands, where the long stems are usually attached to buried twigs or bark.

9. Similar Species

   Mycena galopus is similar (but often larger); it releases white latex when the stem is broken.

Mycena vitilis Taxonomy and Etymology

First described as Agaricus vitilis by Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries in 1838, it was assigned to Mycena vitilis in 1872 by Lucien Quélet. The white-bodied variant Mycena vitilis var. corsica has been described from Italy, and differs from the main species by its white fruit bodies and differing measurements for several microscopic characters.

Carleton Rea named another variety amsegetes (meaning "field by the roadside"), which differs from the type variety by its "obsoletely umbonate" cap, its shorter and thicker stem, and its typical habitat of meadows and roadsides. The name "Mycena filopes" has also been confusingly applied to this species by some authors, although M. filopes (Bull.) P. Kumm. is a species that is recognized as being distinct from M. vitilis".

The specific epithet vitilis is derived from the Latin word for "good for tying or binding with", or "plaited". The mushroom's common name is the "snapping bonnet". In his 1871 Handbook of British Fungi, Mordecai Cubitt Cooke called it the "flexile Mycena".

Sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Stu's Images (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)

Photo 2 - Author: Jason Hollinger (jason) (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)

Photo 3 - Author: James K. Lindsey (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic)