Chrysomphalina chrysophylla
What You Should Know
Chrysomphalina chrysophylla is a species of mushroom with a north temperate distribution. An attractive but uncommon mushroom is recognized by a convex-depressed, peach-colored cap that is overlain with brownish, appressed fibrils or fine scales. Yellowish gills, a nearly glabrous stipe concolorous with the cap, and a lignicolous habit also help to identify this species.
Recent DNA studies have supported the idea that Chrysomphalina chrysophylla is fairly closely related to the waxy caps (despite sharing virtually none of the features which used to define them), many branches away from Gerronema strombodes on the evolutionary tree.
Described by Elias Magnus Fries in 1821, it was placed in the genus Chrysomphalina by Swiss mycologist Heinz Clémençon in 1982.
Other names: Golden-Gilled Chrysomphalina, Golden-Gilled Gerronema, Goldgill Navelcap.
Chrysomphalina chrysophylla Mushroom Identification
Ecology
Saprobic on the well-decayed wood of conifers; growing alone, scattered, or, more often, gregariously; summer and fall; fairly widely distributed in North America, but not common.
Cap
1-4 cm across; planoconvex with an inrolled margin at first, becoming nearly flat and centrally depressed; moist when fresh; very finely scurfy or scaly with gray-brown to yellow-brown fibers and scales; yellowish underneath the brown material; fading.
Gills
Running down the stem; distant or nearly so; yellow to pale yellow or orangish-yellow.
Stem
2-4 cm long and up to 3 mm thick; more or less equal; bald or very minutely hairy; yellow to orange-yellow or nearly whitish.
Flesh
Thin; orangish to yellowish.
Odor and Taste
Not distinctive.
Spore Print
Yellowish.
Microscopic Features
Spores 8.5-15.5 x 4.5-7 µ; smooth; elliptical; inamyloid. Basidia is mostly 4-spored. Cystidia absent. Clamp connections absent. Tissues in the cap and stem are not sarcodimitic.
Chrysomphalina chrysophylla Look-Alikes
Chrysomphalina aurantiaca
Smaller, more common relative with an orangish cap and stipe and peach-orange, decurrent gills. It also occurs on rotting conifer wood.
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Another wood rotter, is somewhat similar but has much brighter, forked gills.
Chrysomphalina chrysophylla Synonyms
Omphalia chrysophylla (Fr.) P. Kumm., 1871
Omphalina chrysophylla (Fr.) Murrill, 1916
Armillariella chrysophylla (Fr.) Singer, 1943
Gerronema chrysophyllum (Fr.) Singer, 1959
Haasiella chrysophylla (Fr.) Raithelh., 1973
Chrysobostrychodes chrysophyllus (Fr.) G. Kost, 1985
Sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Ron Pastorino (Ronpast) (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)
Photo 2 - Author: Byrain (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)