A small, black, club-shaped earth tongue with a velvety surface made of microscopic dark bristles (setae). It grows in moss, soil or rotting wood in forests and, in Europe, in old unimproved waxcap grasslands. DNA studies indicate the name covers a complex of at least three species that may not be separable by morphology.
Reported to be edible but too tough to be of interest; not a food mushroom.
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Saprobic; single, scattered or in groups, often in moss but also on bare soil or rotting wood in hardwood and conifer forests; in Europe typical of waxcap grasslands. Fruits in summer and fall, or over winter in warm climates.
Distribution
Described from Europe; widespread in Europe and North America, and reported from the Caribbean, Central and South America, Oceania and western Asia. At least one lineage of the complex occurs on both continents.
Characteristics
Fruiting body: club-shaped, 3.5-5 cm high in MushroomExpert's collections (up to 9 cm per Wikipedia), black, dry, finely velvety. Head: 6-11 mm high, 4-8 mm wide, flattened, elliptic to spear-shaped, often grooved. Stem: 20-40 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, velvety to hairy, black. Flesh: thin, whitish. Microscopy: dark pointed setae in the hymenium and on the stem; asci 8-spored. Spores: 128-170 x 5-6 um, narrowly fusiform, brown, 15-16-septate at maturity (MushroomExpert); Wikipedia gives 110-160 x 5-7 um.
