Galerina decipiens A. H. Smith & Singer, Mycologia 47: 577. 1955.

Pileus 3-10 mm diam, acutely to obtusely conic when young, remaining so in age or expanding to campanulate; disc non-striate; margin decurved, pellucid-striate, pruinose, not appendiculate; surface glabrous, moist, dull, hygrophanous; when young dark brown (7F6-7) overall, soon fading with disc and striae becoming brown (6-7E7-8) or light brown (6-7D-E5-6), elsewhere brownish orange (6-7C5-7; "ferruginous") or yellowish brown (5C6-8), often fading with moisture loss to greyish orange (5B4). Context thin, concolorous with pileus surface. Odor and taste not distinctive. Lamellae ascending-adnexed to ascending adnate, often with a short decurrent tooth, subdistant to distant with 2 series of lamellulae, moderately broad to broad (1.0 1.5 mm), convex, concolorous with or slightly paler than the pileus, with paler crystalline edges. Stipe 12-30 X 0.2-0.75(-1.0) mm, central, terete, equal or with a slightly enlarged base, dull to subshiny, subtranslucent, dry to moist, fragile; apex pruinose; base glabrous or with scattered pruina, glabrescent overall in age; surface when young yellow (4A5-6) or greyish orange (5B5-6) overall, remaining so in age or more commonly darkening from the base upwards to brownish yellow (5B-C6-8) or brownish orange (6C5-6), never brown; immature basidiomata with unexpanded pilei have a thin white cortina that disappears as the pileus expands leaving no trace of an annulus or a fibrillar zone; mature basidiomata exannulate.
Basidiospores 8.0-10.5(-11.2) X 5.0-6.0(-6.2) µm [range of means = 9.0-9.8 X 5.4-5.7 µm, mean of means = 9.4 ± 0.2 X 5.5 ± 0.1 µm, Q = 1.6-2.0, range of Q means = 1.7-1.8, mean of Q means = 1.71 ± 0.03, n = 20-25 spores per 10 specimens], amygdaliform and often mucronate, brownish orange to dark rusty brown, coarsely verrucose, distal umbo smooth (or weakly roughened), with distinct perispore and plage; germ pore absent. Basidia 19-24 X 7.5 10.5 µm, clavate, 4-spored, clamped. Basidioles clavate. Cheilocystidia (24-)28-46(-55) X 5.5 11.5 µm (at broadest), versiform, typically lageniform to fusoid-ventricose or fusoid-rostrate, sometimes sinuous in outline, hyaline, thin-walled, rarely a few with rusty brown contents; apical neck 2-5 µm diam; apex obtuse or subcapitate, seldom capitate; some basidiomata with interspersed broadly clavate to nearly vesiculose cheilocystidia, 22-47 X 10-30 µm. Pleurocystidia absent. Pileipellis a cutis; hyphae 2.5-16.0(-24.0) µm diam, radially arranged, repent, cylindric, weakly to strongly incrusted with annular to helical, brownish orange pigments, thin-walled, nongelatinous; terminal cells (pilocystidia) common on pileus margin, uncommon elsewhere, 25 60 X 7-20(-35) µm, typically clavate to broadly clavate, seldom undifferentiated from subtending hyphae, repent to erect, smooth or incrusted with pale brownish orange pigments. Tramal hyphae subparallel to interwoven, 3-16(-22) µm diam, cylindric or inflated, nonincrusted, nongelatinous, hyaline, with a few, scattered, dark brownish orange oleiferous hyphae interspersed. Stipe tissue monomitic; cortical and medullary hyphae undifferentiated, 2-20 µm diam, parallel, cylindric, nonincrusted, nongelatinous, thin-walled, hyaline to pale brownish orange, with scattered brownish orange oleiferous hyphae interspersed. Caulocystidia 22-78 X 5.5-9.5(-15.0) µm, solitary or clustered in small groups on the stipe apex (rare elsewhere), cylindric to irregularly cylindric or lageniform, hyaline, thin-walled; apex broadly rounded, rarely subcapitate. Clamp connections common in all tissues.
Habit, habitat and distribution in the Hawaiian Islands. Solitary to scattered, attached to senescent portions of living bryophytes (mosses, thalloid and leafy liverworts) or growing from decayed bryophytes in soil-like substrata covering rotting logs of ohi`a (Metrosideros polymorpha; Myrtaceae) or covering stems of hapu`u (Cibotium spp.; Dicksoniaceae) in Montane Wet Ohi`a Forest, rarely in Lowland Wet Forest (Ohi`a/Ulule Fern Forest). Hawai`i Kaua`i, Maui, Moloka`i. Collected throughout the year.
World distribution. Northern Michigan and the Hawaiian Islands.
Selected descriptions and illustrations. Smith & Singer, 1955, 1964.
Specimens Examined. U.S.A. HAWAII: Hawai`i, Saddle Rd. at 21 mi kipuka, 13 Jan. 1992, DED 5508; same location, 9 Nov. 1993, DEH nos. 315 & 319; Hawai`i, Saddle Rd. at 18.5 mi kipuka, 26 May 1993, DED 5714; Hawai`i, Kahaualea, NARS area, 27 May 1993, DED 5722. Kaua`i, Alaka`i Wilderness Preserve, Mohihi-Wai`alae Trail, ca 4000'-4350', between N22°ree; 07.204', W159°ree; 36.229' and N22°ree; 06.860', W159°ree; 35.034', 6 Jan. 1995, DED 6179; Kaua`i, Koke`e State Park, Kahuamaa Flat near Kalalau Lookout, 5 Jan. 1994, DED 5984; Kaua`i, Koke`e State Park, Kahuamaa Flat, Kaluapuhi Trail, begins at N22°ree; 08.479', W159°ree; 38.734', ends at N22°ree; 09.067', W159°ree; 38.565', 5 Jan. 1995, DED 6168; Kaua`i, Koke`e State Park, Awa`awa`puhi Trail, 8 Jan. 1994, DED 6031; Kaua`i, Kuia Natural Area Reserve, Nualolo trail, N22°ree; 06.309', W159°ree; 40.603', 4 Jan. 1995, DED 6143; Kaua`i, Na Pali-Kona Forest Reserve, Alaka`i Swamp, Pihea Trail, 6 Jan. 1994, DED 5998-A. Maui, West Maui Mts., 1.5 mi up Waihe`e Ridge Trail near Maluhia Boy Scout Camp, 30 Jul. 1993, DED 5843; Maui, West Maui Mts., Pu`u Kukui, trail along Kapaloa Ridge, 17 Jan. 1994, DED 6084. MICHIGAN: Emmet Co., Mackinaw City, 6 Jul. 1953, R. Singer N-431 (HOLOTYPE, F).
Commentary. The Hawaiian specimens are indistinguishable from the holotype specimen of G. decipiens (F!) collected in the Great Lakes Region of northern Michigan, USA. The conspicuous lageniform to fusoid-ventricose cheilocystidia, lack of pleurocystidia, and amygdaliform, coarsely verrucose basidiospores with distinctive smooth mucronate apex are characteristic features of this bryophilous species. It belongs to sect. Mycenopsis A. H. Smith & Singer (1964) where it is closely allied with G. hypnorum (Schrank: Fr.) Kühner. Although we are aware that Arnolds (1982) synonymized G. decipiens with G. hypnorum [sensu Kühner (1935), non sensu Smith & Singer (1964)], after comparing the holotype specimen and several paratype specimens of G. decipiens with numerous European specimens of G. hypnorum, we conclude that the two taxa are distinct, based primarily on basidiospore morphology. Galerina hypnorum differs from G. decipiens in forming consistently larger (9-12 X 5.5-7 µm), nearly smooth or only moderately rugulose basidiospores that are often calyptrate or with proximal or distal pustules. At present, G. decipiens is known only from northern Michigan and the Hawaiian Islands. Like G. atkinsoniana described above, G. decipiens appears to be restricted to montane native forests where it is the most commonly encountered Galerina species, and is considered by us as indigenous to the Hawaiian Islands.
In an unpublished masters thesis, Doyle (1985) reported G. uchumachiensis Singer as a commonly collected native forest species (his specimens are unavailable for study). The latter species is considered a synonym of G. taimbesinhoensis Singer (Horak, 1992), and differs from G. decipiens in forming very minutely warted basidiospores that lack a distinct perispore, and in growing on Sphagnum (holotype of G. uchumachiensis [MICH!]; isotype of G. taimbesinhoensis [MICH!]). We have not encountered G. taimbesinhoensis in the Hawaiian Islands and we suspect that Doyle's specimens were misdetermined.

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