A Horsehair Fungus!

An easy to miss mushroom. It only appears after a rain and quickly shrivels up to nothing. Luckily they reside just out side our back door and the fall rains have begun. After much thought and looking at many of these tiny, 1.5-2mm caps, I have come to say they are Marasmius pallidocephalus. They do not have a collar where the gills attach like Marasmius rotula (Collared Parachute Fungus) and they are not Gymnopus androsaceus which is associated with pine needles. These mushrooms have always been associated with Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) needles and decaying stems and never on our local pine (Pinus contortus var. contortus). Those black hairlike structures at the base of the stems are rhizomorphs or mycelia cords which transport nutrients to the stems.