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Specimen collected.

Update: Fruiting from a decaying coniferous log in a moist micro-climate of a steep, dry, seasonal streambed in mixed Pinus, Pseudostuga, and Abies forest.

8-spored ascii. Spores ellipsoid, smooth, hyline, eguttulate, and averaged 17.4 x 10.8 microns. All macro and micro features are a good match for C. vernalis

https://pfistergroup.oeb.harvard.edu/files/dpfister/files/perry_chaetothiersia_vernalis.pdf

Fruiting from soil in a gravel road. Collection made, will update with micro.

Spores smooth, colorless, +/- ellipsoid, and measured 7.5-11 x 3.5-5 microns at 1000x with analog reticle. Stature, habitat, and spore size seem to be a pretty good match for Hemimycena ignobilis.

First collection of this species for the day was somewhat nearby, by @stellar_viscera. Her observation is at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/57965424
Found in an area with mostly Abies and Tsuga heterophylla. About 20 ft from a stream, moist but not in flowing water. We found two collections looking exactly like this in separate locations in the area. Someone on Facebook suggested Vibrissea piceicola nom prov. I am trying to get more information to compare to that species. The color and shape does not appear to be the same as V. truncorum. Here is a listing https://www.nahuby.sk/obrazok_detail.php?obrazok_id=622606&poradie=6&form_hash=gallery Here are some pics from H.-O. Baral gdrive https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B5SeyOEkxxZhdnVlckhrSDhNc3M?usp=sharing

Micro photos show asci (one measured at 280 microns), paraphyses (filiform, clavate tips, ~7 septate), spores. All parts inamyloid. Spores are threadlike, about 1 micron wide and very long, (143) 200-235 microns, although they are somewhat difficult to measure because many of them are curved. Updated 6/19 with stereo scope photo of stipe showing some hairiness, although only white.

Update 3/9/21 I received a key to Vibrissea including V. piceicola no prov from Has-Otto (AKA Zotto) Baral, listing its spores as 150-180(-200) microns. So these spores might be a bit too large.

Sequencing data came back, see comment below and sequence listed. I am a novice at interpreting that data, so am unsure if it tells us anything conclusive.

Michael Beug wrote: "Your collection looks fairly similar to the third MatchMaker illustration identified as V. truncorum, a photo by Steve Trudell that is also in his book with Joe Ammirati (Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest).  Another one that looks a bit similar is a Vancouver Island collection by the Ceskas on https://mushroomobserver.org/99118." 

Bee Marcotte found this form first on the day we saw it, in the same forest but not that close to this one. Her observation is here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/57965424 And there are similar looking somewhat local ones observed at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/28072973 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/6697950

The coolest find of the day. A Zombie Land of flies - 9 total flies in a 5 ft x 5ft area in different states of Entomophthora muscae infection. One fly was still moving and the infection had only caused one wing to be bent up and non-functional. I could touch it with my finger and it didn't run away. During the course of photographing the other flies this still living one climbed to the top of the plant that I had found it on, which is textbook behavior for the infection as some how the mycelium grows into a portion of the fly brain that makes it want to climb to a high place for better spore dispersal

Found under Eucalyptus in a parking lot median. No other species of trees within 100ft.

6 blue gum within 15 ft radius.

Closests other tree species is a plane tree 50 ft away

Quercus agrifolia 200 ft away, downslope from parking lot

This semi-hypogeous species has an internal branched structure - the ‘columella’. In combination with the semi-above ground fruiting habit, and the bright golden-peridium, this species is easy to identify.

Growing with Douglas-fir.