Chromosera cyanophylla

Pileus
Cap 1.0-2.5 cm broad at maturity, at first convex, becoming plano-convex, in age the disc broadly flattened, depressed or umbillicate; margin translucent-striate to near the disc, incurved in youth, then decurved, occasionally plane at maturity; surface glabrous, viscid, lavender to lilac, soon fading to yellowish or yellowish-tan; context thin, < 1 mm, pallid, unchanging; odor indistinct; taste mild.

Lamellae
Gills decurrent, subdistant, lavender, fading to pale-lilac, cream-colored in age; lamellulae in 2-series.

Stipe
Stipe 1.0-2.5 cm long, 1.0-2.0 mm thick, fragile, hollow, more or less equal, sometimes sub-bulbous; surface glabrous, viscid, lavender, becoming yellowish to pale-tan in age, lavender-colored mycelium often at the base; partial veil absent.

Spores
Spores 6.0-7.5 x 3.0-3.5 µm, tear-shaped, smooth, thin-walled, hilar appendage not distinct, with numerous granular inclusions, inamyloid; spore print white.

Habitat
Gregarious to clustered on or under the bark of conifer logs; fruiting commonly in late spring after snow melt in montane regions, occasional during the winter months in coastal forests.

Edibility
Unknown; too small to be of culinary value.

Comments
Few fungi are prettier than this small, mycena-like snowbank mushroom. Early in development, it is a startling lavender, but soon fades to lilac and then yellowish. Collections from under bark often retain lavender-tints, thus make excellent photographic subjects. Compare with Chrysomphalina aurantiaca, a small, orange, lignicolous species with decurrent gills, distinguished by a moist, not viscid cap, and absence of lilac tones; Mycena epipterygia is a mushroom of coastal forests and is similar with a viscid, striate, cap, but the shape is typically umbonate, and the color more yellowish-olive to brown. Microscopically it is easily differentiated by amyloid spores.