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Yes, and it’s got smooth spores!

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Sorry Steve, but that is what I would call very clear encrusting pigment!! It rarely gets more obvious than this (in Entolomas) and can be much more difficult to interpret. Clamps I agree are even more difficult (especially those at the base of basidia).

I’m only familiar with sericeum myself and agree it doesn’t seem to be this. I have only 3 records that I have called juncinum (two from way back and one ‘doubtful’), and I guess these could all be nitens! The two are very closely related and unless one has found, over the years, a number of collections of each, it’s always going to be difficult to tell the two species apart.

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Try I. stellatospora (syn. lanuginosa var. lanuginosa).

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I think this is likely to be Entoloma nitens (using the keys and images in FE5 an 5a).

It is “…very pale and strongly aeriferous-fibrillose when dry”. It has clamps in the hymenium but elsewhere they are rare or lacking.

The alternative possibilities (those in Subgenus Nolanea without cystidia, with iso. spores 10 x 9µ & encrusting pigment – and are British) are juncinum and the common sericeum. The first is a woodland species but has a smooth/polished stipe. Sericium is found in grasslands (although may occur in grassy places in forests).

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Ah, but would you rather have an unknown Inocybe or Psathyrella?

I think there are a couple of the thinnest hyphae in your image with encrusted pigment.

So probably a Nolanea (in old money) with no cc., iso. spores, 4-spored basidia and encrusted pigment: I’ll have a look…..

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Had another look at Maas Geesteranus’ “Mycenas” book. I’m wondering if it might be Mycena stylobates which I’ve found a few times. It can be variable in colour and a var. candida has been described. Most of your parameters seem to fit (except the cap cuticle image!): in fact the cap of stylobates has a gelatinous cuticle. Also the stipe has a basal disc where it attaches to the substrate. I believe the only Mycena with a cuticle of globose cells is M. rorida (which Maas Geesteranus excludes from the Genus because of this feature!).

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Rather drawing a blank……

Is the stem pruinose?: it looks like it in the image.

Looking at Mycena and Hemimycena (eg: H. cucullata) and nothing seems to fit.

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Top one looks like dear old Megacollybia platyphylla.

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Gymnopus peronatus (Collybia as was).

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Hello James,

There are several small species of Marasmius with dark stems that have a pale apex (eg: setosus and androsaceus are not uncommon).

Some have ‘proper’ gills, others gills which are vein like. Some are restricted to dead leaves of certain species (eg: Ivy or Box).

Only four have gills which are attached to a collar as in rotula:

Curreyi has a reddish-brown cap. Limosus I don’t know (it grows in marshes & swamps). The one closest to rotula is bulliardii which, like rotula, usually grows in large troops. It is unusual in that the stems usually have side branches!

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Three found this past week:

The first I mistook for a Mycena, thinking maybe inclinata. Fortunately I bothered to take it home to check. I have found Hydropus scabripes a few times before, and it usually catches me out each time (H. trichoderma is another sp. that comes close to this).

The second seems to be Tricholomopsis decora. It was ID’d as Plums & Custard (T. rutilans) in the field but the stipe is yellow and caps small (13-35mm). Not seen it before but then most records are from Scotland. The spores from a print seem rather small for either spp.!

The last is Scleroderma bovista. I don’t take my camera out much, but this was in my garden! I don’t record it often, but it’s easy to mistake for one of the other Earth Balls (unless you check the spores).

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No need to reply – you seemed to have it sorted! Except the spore width is a little narrow and they’re usually 4-spored.

Sometimes I find you can see if small specimens are 2 or 4-spored using low power and looking directly up at the gills (gill cystidia also often visible; if present). Otherwise squashing half a fruitbody is the only way. This is OK if you know what you’re expecting to see (eg: Mycena adscendens has distinctive cheilocystida and cap veil cells).

Fortunately I’m not addicted to the ‘hard stuff’ (brackets, crusts) so never have cause to examine these microscopically!

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You need to check how much the cap cuticle peels and whether the taste (of the gills) is mild or hot. Spore colour narrows the field considerably (which is good as there are well over 100 British Russula spp…. and counting). All Russula spores are warty to some extent: the size of spores and height of spines/warts is useful info. and whether the spines are isolated or joined (either in short ridges or more extensively, even forming a network). Then there are the reactions of the stipe to Iron Sulphate and Guaiac…… and so on.

With the limited info. I’m guessing, but it could be around risigallina/acetolens.

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The Genus is Russula.

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I assume the conica/nigrescens pair have been DNA’d by now and the argument settled. But what about the two Panaeolus pairs – have they been ‘done’?

As you say DNA analysis is likely to bring some nasty surprises. You’ve only to look at the Paxillus involutus complex and Section Minores in Agaricus to see the trend. We seem to have gone from the Orton era of British mycologists describing new species which have then been lumped together by continental authors only to be split up again following DNA sequencing.

The Genus Inocybe is an example where Kuyper lumped species together which are now recognised as species complexes. I wonder what will happen with Pluteus…

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