Strobilurus albipitatus

Pileus
Cap 1.5-3.0 cm broad, convex, expanding to plano-convex, the disc with or without a low umbo; margin decurved, plane to sometimes raised at maturity, striate; surface glabrous to slightly wrinkled; color variable: at first, brown to greyish-brown, the margin typically lighter, fading to cream-buff or pale-tan; context thin, pallid, unchanging; odor and taste mild.

Lamellae
Gills adnexed, close, cream-colored; lamellule up to three-seried.

Stipe
Stipe 1.5-6.0 cm long, 1.0-2.0 mm thick, straight to sinuous, round, more or less equal, hollow at maturity; surface pruinose except for the base, the latter clothed in soft, buff-colored hairs; apex whitish becoming yellowish-brown to dark tawny-brown below; partial veil absent.

Spores
Spores 4.0-6.5 x 3.0-3.5 µm, elliptical in face-view, slightly inequilateral in profile, smooth; inamyloid; spore deposit not seen.

Habitat
Scattered to clustered on woody conifer debris, spring and fall in the Sierra; also along the coast north of the San Francisco Bay Area; fairly common.

Edibility
Unknown.

Comments
Key to identifying this small wood rotter is recognizing its variable cap color. Young specimens are brown to grey-brown, typically fading to pale-grey or light-tan, but not to white as the species epithet suggests. Spring or snowbank fruitings of Strobiluris albipilatus are sometimes confused with Mycena griseoviridis, also small and lignicolous, but possessing a viscid, olivaceous, conic cap and amyloid spores. Fall fruitings along the coast should be compared with Strobiluris trullisatus and S. occidentalis. Strobiluris trullisatus has a paler, sometimes pinkish-tinged cap and fruits primarily on cones of Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), while S. occidentalis, uncommon in California, fruits mostly on spruce cones (Picea stichensis). Yet another look-alike on Douglas fir cones, Baeospora myosura, differs in having crowded gills and smaller, slightly amyloid spores.