Cudonia circinans

Appearance

Cap: 10–20 mm across; cushion-shaped to irregularly convex, with the margin curled under; upper surface bald, sometimes a little wrinkled; dry; creamy to pale pinkish tan; undersurface similar to upper surface.

Stem: 15–30 mm long; 2–5 mm thick; dry; bald or very finely fuzzy near the base; often with longitudinal grooves or ridges which may extend onto the undersurface of the cap; brown to purplish tan; attached to copious underground, sulphur yellow mycelium.

Flesh: Thin; insubstantial; not gelatinous.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on cap surface.

Microscopic Features: Spores 35–40 x 1.5–2.5 µm; cylindric with one aciculate end and one end merely rounded; often a little curved; smooth; hyaline and multiguttulate in KOH. Asci 75–125 x 8–11 µm; fusiform, with subacute apices; hyaline in KOH. Paraphyses 75–150 x 2–3 µm; filiform; often exceeding the asci and curving or looping; apices varying from subacute to subclavate or merely rounded; smooth; hyaline in KOH.

Distribution

widely distributed in northern and montane North America

Habitat

Presumably saprobic; growing scattered to gregariously or in clusters on the duff of spruces and other conifers, and occasionally on well-rotted wood; late summer and fall