unidentified mushrooms. Anyone help ?

[zippy2460]

Saw these this morning while walking through the woods. Growing in clumps, the underside is light grey, almost white.
Can they be picked and eaten ?

Thanks

Zippy

[Ken Burgess]

Originally Posted by zippy2460

Saw these this morning while walking through the woods. Growing in clumps, the underside is light grey, almost white.
Can they be picked and eaten ?

Thanks

Zippy

They look like a species of Psathyrella. I can't comment on edibility, except to say that, since this is a hard genus to identify down to species, I wouldn't recommend eating any of them because you can't be certain what you are eating.

[thebeard]

there are only a few species which are truly worth the time eating them, and its best to stick to these, for both safety and tastiness reasons. just google edible mushrooms for any that are worth eating there's plenty of sites with sufficient info for these species.

[thebeard]

also i'd have a stab at Mycena inclinata, clustered bonnet, for these ones. not a certain ID at all though, as i have little experience, espcially with mycena

[Ken Burgess]

Originally Posted by thebeard

also i'd have a stab at Mycena inclinata, clustered bonnet, for these ones. not a certain ID at all though, as i have little experience, espcially with mycena

If you look at the caps of a few of the specimens in the cluster on the right you will see evidence of a very dark spore print, dropped by the overlying caps. This rules out Mycena which would have a white spore print. There are also quite a few other characters which rule out Mycena inclinata, such as the shape of the cap, the colour of the stem and the huge and dense clustering of 'fruitbodies'.

This is a Psathyrella.

Ken

[thebeard]

i didn't notice the dark spores, didn't look close enough it seems! on review i think you may well be right.