Rickenella

A genus of brightly colored bryophilous agarics in the Hymenochaetales that have an omphalinoid morphology. They inhabit mosses on mossy soils, peats, tree trunks and logs in temperate regions of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Phylogenetically related agarics are in the genera Contumyces, Gyroflexus, Loreleia, Cantharellopsis and Blasiphalia, as well as the stipitate-stereoid genera Cyphellostereum and Cotylidia and the clavaroid genus, Alloclavaria. Rickenella is most similar to Contumyces and Blasiphalia, from the former differing by having its cystidia on the pileus, stipe, and hymenium solitary and scattered. The hair-like cystidia on the pileus and stipe give the small mushrooms a fuzzy appearance when viewed through a magnifying glass or hand lens. This helps to distinguish the genus from genera like Loreleia, which can be orange colored and inhabits similar sites, as well as other brightly pigmented omphalinoid genera. Rickenella does not produce massive clasping, hand-like appresoria on the rhizoids of its host, as does Blasiphalia. Instead, Rickenella produces a small appresorium or no appresoria and penetrates the rhizoids of its moss hosts, growing within the cells

Blasiphalia is a recent segregate of Rickenella.

History of name
Rickenella was named after the German mycologist, Adalbert Ricken, author of "Die Blätterpilze (Agaricaceae) (1915) Deutschlands und der angrenzenden Länder, besonders Oesterreichs und der Schweiz"