Tubaria furfuracea (Pers.: Fries) Gillet
Champ. France hyménomyc., p. 538. 1876.

Common Name: none

• Pileus

  Cap 1.0-4.0 cm broad, convex, nearly plane in age, the disc sometimes slightly depressed, margin striate, often with adhering veil fragments; surface minutely hairy, hygrophanous, at first hazel-brown, then tawny-brown, finally fading to dingy-cream; flesh thin, fragile, pale buff; odor fungal, taste mild.

• Lamellae

  Gills close, adnate to subdecurrent, moderately broad, pale buff-brown, becoming cinnamon-brown in age.

• Stipe

  Stipe 1-5 cm tall, 0.2-0.7 cm thick, equal, rounded to flattened, hollow, smooth, dingy buff-brown, cottony white mycelium at the base; veil evanescent, leaving scattered fragments on the cap margin.

• Spores

  Spores 7-8 x 4.5-5 µm, oval to elliptical, smooth; spore print pale orange-brown.

• Habitat

  Solitary to gregarious on woody debris, e.g., sticks, bark, wood chips, sawdust etc.; fruiting from early fall to late winter.

• Edibility

  Unknown. Too small and insignificant to be of culinary value.

• Comments

  Tubaria furfuracea is a small mushroom that is characterized by a tawny-brown hygrophanous cap, a striate cap margin, usually subdecurrent gills, and a pale rusty-brown spore print. It often fruits in vast numbers in its favored habitat wood chips, with Psathyrella gracilis and Hypholoma aurantiaca. Indeed, Psathyrella gracilis resembles it in size and also has a hygrophanous cap but it is grey-brown rather than orange-brown in color. Tubaria confragosa is similar to T. furfuracea but has an annulus or fibrillose zone on the stipe.

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • Fred Stevens: Tubaria furfuracea (CP) -- young sporocarps on left; older, faded sporocarps on right
  • Fred Stevens: Tubaria furfuracea (CP)
  • Arora (1986): p. 402 (D & P)
  • Breitenbach & Kränzlin (vol. 4): sp. 463 (D, I, & CP)
  • Jordan: p. 262 (D & CP)
  • Lincoff: p. 639 (D), plate 78 (CP)
  • Phillips: p. 187 (D & CP)

  (D=Description; I=Illustration; P=Photo; CP=Color Photo)