This ashy slime is less familiar (or more overlooked) than the "scrambled-egg slime,"
F. septica, and may be confused with it in its late stages. The aethalium (fruitbody) of F. cinerea is typically much smaller that F. septica, rarely exceeding 3-4 cm in diameter, and is initially white becoming ashy gray in age. Its spores are variable, either elliptical, 14-16 x 10-12 microns, or globose, 13-14 microns in diameter. Bill Yule has reminded us that slimes are not part of the Phylum Fungi, but rather members of the Phyla Protist. The reason we collect and identify them is because, for so long they were thought to be fungi, mycologists have traditionally studied them, and that tradition continues on even to the present.