Front Room Foray

[Cotham Marble]

A long time ago I used to collect on a regular basis and could identify most family groups and most common species. Rubbish health meansmy only hands on fungi time is with the odd occurences I see in the garden - so it was rather fun to find a specimen breaking forth in a plant pot on the front room windowsill.

I'm clearly rusty in the ID department, unfortunately I don't have a camera up to taking pictures of such a small specimen, but any suggestions on the basis of the following description woud be most welcome.

The growing medium was a propriety peat free compost, probably with a high shredded wood content - the plant is propbably irrelevant - Cedronella - but the pot had been oustide for several months prior to being brought in for the winter.

Description:

Stipe 3 cm

Cap 1cm

Gills free ? possible veil remenant

Cap viscid when fresh. Nut Brown with pale band around margin. Bluntly convex when young, flattened dome when fully expanded, no obvious umbo.

Flesh thin, pale/white turning dull brown when cut. Smell slightly mushroomy and acrid

Stipe slightly eccentric, tapering in from the cap in the upper half, regular there after. Pale yellowish above, grading to brown at base – granular texture. Fibrous, not breaking easily.

Slight white velvet ‘root’ present.


I was thinking possibly some form of Hebeloma but I haven't any books accessible so I'm dragging the recesses of an unused brain and the WAB Gallery.

CM

[bregalad]

Hello,
I'm barely experienced enough to comment. However ...

My first impression was Tubaria furfuracea (=hiemalis), but I guess you've considered this? I had some growing in a Fuchsia pot with organic compost about this time last year.

It would match your details of the substrate, the veil remnant, the cap description, the fibrous stem and the white velvety root. But free gills, white flesh rather than brown, a noticeable smell, an eccentric stipe and the graduated stipe colour would, it seems to me, contraindicate.

But I hope this reply will help excite comments from the more experienced forum members.

[SheffieldLass]

You may have written it and I can't see it for looking, but what colour were the gills and what colour spore print?

Cheers
Melanie

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by SheffieldLass

You may have written it and I can't see it for looking, but what colour were the gills and what colour spore print?

Couldn't get any spore unfortunately. I forgot to include gill colour above, actually not easy to describe - pale yellow/cream/brown is the best I can manage. Also fairly dense.

Originally Posted by bregalad

My first impression was Tubaria furfuracea (=hiemalis), but I guess you've considered this? I had some growing in a Fuchsia pot with organic compost about this time last year.

It would match your details of the substrate, the veil remnant, the cap description, the fibrous stem and the white velvety root. But free gills, white flesh rather than brown, a noticeable smell, an eccentric stipe and the graduated stipe colour would, it seems to me, contraindicate.

The other thing that seems not to fit Tubaria furfuracea is the density of the gills, which was certainly greater than in the online photos of T. furfuracea, also the pale band around the cap rim was quite prominent.

But thanks for the suggestion. Without spore colour it's probably going to be the best shot we can get.

CM

[Cotham Marble]

I've second shot at this as the same pot has produced a small troop - with one cap yielding spore. I'd also revise my original description of the gills as being free, to being adnexed.

So:

Description:

Stipe 3 cm

Cap 1cm

Gills crowed, adnexed or perhaps even very narrowly adnate, with some 'short gills' present.

Cap viscid when fresh. Nut Brown with noticiale pale/white band around margin. Bluntly convex when young, flattened dome when fully expanded, indistinct umbo on some specimens.

Flesh thin, pale/white turning dull brown when cut. Smell slightly mushroomy and acrid

Stipe slightly eccentric, tapering in from the cap in the upper half, regular there after. Pale yellowish above, grading to brown at base – granular texture. Fibrous, not breaking easily.

Slight white velvet ‘root’ present.

Spore - dark cinnamon brown

CM

[mollisia]

Dear CM,

so now we have a lot of information.

Vers important is the spore print, which is dark cinnamon. So it is a species of the Cortinariaceae, Bolbitiaceae, Strophariaceae or Crepidotaceae. No Psathyrella, Coprinus, Psilocybe and no white spored genus either.

The small size (cap 1 cm) in addition to the veil ("noticable pale band") on the cap would leave:
In Cortinariaceae: Naucoria, Hebeloma, (Galerina)
In Bolbitiaceae: Pholiotina
In Strophariaceae: Only dwarf specimens of Some Pholiotas like Ph. lenta etc.
In Crepidotaceae: Tubaria

Galerinas usually don't have such a distinct veil, Hebeloma aren't that small. Naucoria doesn't show such a veil, except N. luteolofibrillosa perhaps. I would rule out the Cortinariaceae.

Pholiotina with a veilmon the cap have this veil in form of a denticulate cap margin, and not as white zone ON the cap. So Bolbitiaceae rules out too.

That leaves us either Tubaria or a quite unusual collection of a Pholiotina species.

best regards,
Andreas