Smoked oysterling or Black jelly oyster

Description:

Resupinatus applicatus, Smoked Oysterling. You really need your hand lens to admire this beautiful little fungus. It will appear to be growing upside down, with the cap attached to a dead branch (no stipe) and the gills facing you. The fruiting body is 0.5 - 1.5 cm in diameter, roundish, with minutely scalloped cap edges. It is brownish grey, with paler grey gills, which are widely spaced with shorter intermediate gills. There are only two records for Guernsey, but it is so small it has probably been overlooked. I know the name is tempting, but it is classed as inedible ( http://web.guernsey.net/~cdavid/botany/f... )

Habitat:

Scientific name: Resupinatus applicatus (Bataille:Fies) S.F. Gray Derivation of name: Applicatus means "near" or "attached" or "close" and probably refers to the absence of a stipe and the appearence of the cap directly (closely) attached to the wood. Synonyms: Pleurotus applicatus Common name(s): Black jelly oyster. Phylum: Basidiomycota Order: Agaricales Family: Tricholomataceae Occurrence on wood substrate: Saprobic; scattered or in dense groups on the underside of deciduous logs; June through November. Dimensions: Caps 2-6 mm wide. Cap: Dark bluish-gray to grayish-black; dry; hairy. Gills: Arising from point of attachment; whitish at first, becoming blackish. Spore print: White. Stipe: Absent. Veil: Absent. Edibility: Unknown. Comments: These fruitbodies are very tiny and not likely to be found unless the undersides of logs are searched ( http://www.messiah.edu/Oakes/fungi_on_wo... )

Notes:

The cuplike to convex fruit bodies of the fungus are 0.2 to 0.6 cm (0.1 to 0.2 in) in diameter, and grayish-blue to grayish-black in color. The dry cap surface is covered with small, fine hairs. The mushrooms have no stem, and have a firm but gelatinous flesh. The mushrooms produce a white spore print ( wikipedia ), ( http://www.mycobank.org/MycoTaxo.aspx?Li... ),