Golden-scruffy Collybia

Appearance

The cap is 0.6 to 2.7 cm in diameter, convex to cushion-shaped. The cap surface is dry, and younger specimens are covered with characteristic spikes; as the spikes break up with age, they tend to look more hairy or woolly. Older specimens typically have the surface features worn off. The cap margin tends to be rolled inwards when young, gradually becoming straight with maturity. The color of the cap is bright or pale yellow, increasing in intensity towards the center of the cap. "C. asprata" has a web-like ring that soon disappears.

The gills, pale yellow to white in color, are distantly spaced and have an adnate or short decurrent attachment to the stem; they feel greasy when dried and crushed. The stem is 1 to 6.7 centimetres long by 0.2 to 0.4 centimetres thick at the stem apex; the stem is slightly thicker towards the base, and may be covered with hyphae that appear woolly or hairy.

The surface of the stem may also be scaly – especially towards the base – or it may be covered with very small particles. The flesh of this mushroom is white or pale yellow, with no distinctive taste or odor. The spore print is white. It is considered inedible.

Naming

Many other members of genus "Cyptotrama" are similar in appearance and differ from "C. asprata" by only one or two readily observable features. For example, "C. granulosa" is bright yellowish-brown; "C. lachnocephala" is ochre-colored; "C. deseynesiana" is cream-colored with brown scales; "C. verruculosa" has a "copper-rust-brown" cap; "C. costesii" has olive-colored pigments. Species may also be distinguished by differences in spore size and shape, although a considerable size range has been noted for "C. asprata" spores.

Distribution

The species has a pantropical distribution, and is widely distributed in tropical regions of the world. It has been collected from Australia, southeastern Canada, China, Costa Rica, India, Hawaii, New Zealand, Japan, and the Russian Far East. It is absent from Europe and Northwestern North America.

Habitat

"Cyptotrama asprata" is a saprobic fungus, and grows on the decaying wood of deciduous and coniferous trees. Host species include white fir, sugar maple and other maple species, grey alder, beech species, spruce species, ponderosa pine and other pine species, poplar and oak species. In temperate North America, specimens are typically collected between July through September.

Evolution

This species was first described from Ceylon by English naturalist Miles Joseph Berkeley in 1847; soon after, specimens were collected from South Carolina USA. Later, the fungus was described under a variety of names: "Lentinus chrysopeplus" from Cuba; "Agaricus sabriusculus" and "Agaricus lacunosa" from New York; "Collybia lacunosa" from Michigan; and "Omphalia scabriuscula" in Connecticut. As Canadian mycologists Redhead and Ginns explain in a 1980 article on the species, since its original 1847 description, "C. asprata" has been given 28 names, and placed in 14 different genera.