Marasmiellus ramealis - Twig Parachute

Taxonomy

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Agaricales

The closer you look at fungi the more you see; and the more you look closely at tree trunks and branches the more fungi you see. Some little mushrooms are so tiny that they are often overlooked or assumed to be some of the numerous blob-like ascomycetes of millimetric dimensions. Many of the tiniest cap-and-stem mushrooms fruit on dead twigs - even those attached to living trees - and so it’s important to look up as well as down when wandering through woodlands in search of new finds.

Marasmiellus ramealis is a little white parachute-like mushroom that often grows at or above head height, first appearing in springtime and recurring throughout summer and autumn on twigs and small branches of conifers and deciduous broadleaf trees. (It is also a common sight on dead bramble stems.)

Identification Guide

	Cap White or pale cream; convex initially, flattening at maturity; radially wrinkled at margin; 0.3 to 1.5cm across.
	Gills Pinkish-white turning ochre when old; adnate; narrow; distant.
Stem	Upper stem is concolorous with the cap, but it becomes a darker brown near to the base; slightly scurfy; delicate; 0.5 to 2cm long and typically 1mm dia; no ring.
Spore print	White.
Odour/taste	Not distinctive.
Habitat	On dead twigs fallen from conifers and from broadleaf hardwood trees or od dead attached twigs; also commonly seen on dead bramble stems.
Season	June to November.
Occurrence	Common.
Similar species	Marasmius androsaceus, known as the Horsehair Parachute, has long, thin black stems. Marasmius rotula has it gills joined not directly to the stem but to a collar surrounding the stem.

Dictionary of the Fungi; Paul M. Kirk, Paul F. Cannon, David W. Minter and J. A. Stalpers; CABI, 2008

Taxonomic history and synonym information on these pages is drawn from many sources but in particular from the British Mycological Society's GB Checklist of Fungi and (for basidiomycetes) on Kew's Checklist of the British & Irish Basidiomycota.