Small agaric, growing on wood or litter, with a white spore print. Pileus white or pale and distinctly hairy (use hand lens), not viscid. Stipe absent. Partial veil remnants absent. Spores hyaline, dextrinoid (sometimes weakly), smooth; germ pore absent. Cheilocystidia present, branched. Lamellar trama regular or interwoven. Pileipellis a trichoderm with long, hair-like, terminal elements that are thick-walled and dextrinoid. Clamp connections present.

Among small, white or pale stipe-less agarics, the densely hairy pileus surface of Chaetocalathus is very distinctive. Occasional small specimens of Lentinellus can be quite hairy, but the lamellae edges are serrate and spores are warty with amyloid ornamentation. Schizophyllum is larger and the lamellae edges are longitudinally split.

Chaetocalathus Singer, Lilloa 8: 518 (1942).

Two species: Chaetocalathus cheelii and C. semisupinus (the latter known only from old records). There may be further species, particularly in northern Australia.

Qld, N.S.W. and Vic. (and possibly also N.T.).

In native forests (seems to prefer rainforest).

On fallen twigs and leaves.

Saprotrophic.

Pegler, D.N. (1986), Agaric flora of Sri Lanka, Kew Bull., Addit. Ser. 12: 1–519. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of C. semisupinus from Sri Lanka]

Simpson, J.A. & Grgurinovic, C.A. (1989), An Australian species of Chaetocalathus, Mycol. Res. 93: 389–391. [Description and Microcharacters of C. cheelii]