Marasmius koae to the substrate. The fruit body has no distinctive taste or odor. The thin-walled spores are somewhat fusoid (spindle-shaped) to elongated ellipsoidal in shape, smooth, hyaline (translucent), and measure 12–14.5 by 4–4.8 μm. The basidia (spore-bearing cells) are club-shaped, four-spored, and clamped, measuring 24–28 by 7–9 μm. The species is endemic to Hawaii, where it has been found growing in dense groups on the rotting wood of koa ("Acacia koa"). Collections have been made only in the Koa/Ohia Montane Wet Forest on Kauaʻi island. Marasmius koae Marasmius koae is a species of agaric fungus in the Marasmiaceae family. Newly described
Mauna Kea State Recreation Area. A band of ranch land on Mauna Kea's lower slopes was formerly "Acacia koa" – "Metrosideros polymorpha" (koa-ōhia) forest. Its destruction was driven by an influx of European and American settlers in the early 19th century, as extensive logging during the 1830s provided lumber for new homes. Vast swathes of the forest were burned and cleared for sugarcane plantations. Most of the houses on the island were built of koa, and those parts of the forest that survived became a source for firewood to power boilers on the sugarcane plantations and to heat homes. The once vast