Marasmius

Notes

Spore print white. Small brown or whitish mushrooms characterised by having tough, leathery fruiting bodies, some species with long, very narrow, almost hair-like stalks. The stalks are often dark.
There are more than 25 species of Marasmius reported for New Zealand. In addition, there are several more species in Marasmius-like genera such as Micromphale (with a garlic odour), Marasmiellus (lacking a central stalk), and Gloiocephala (poorly defined, fold-like gills).
Most species are found on small twigs and sticks, and fallen, dead leaves. Several of the indigenous, leaf-inhabiting species are specialised to a single kind of plant, for example M. fishii on flax leaves, M. podocarpicola on totara, M. rhombisporus on pseudopanax, and M. rhopalostylidis on nikau. The introduced M. oreades is a soil-inhabiting species found in grassland.

 

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Images		NZFungi Entry

Marasmius oreades
Fairy rings in pasture. Large numbers of the mushrooms develop close to the dark green ring.