Agrocybe erebia

Key to Gilled Mushrooms Key

This is a key to gilled mushrooms, that is, mushrooms having a definite cap with a fertile surface consisting of gills. The fruiting body usually also has a stem, although that may be lateral or absent (usually, then, the mushroom is growing from wood). You can use this key to identify mushrooms that you find.

Agaricales Order

Fruiting body containing fibers (usually in the stalk)

Brown, Olive, Orange or Tan Spored Suborder

Gills not free
Spore print tan, orange, deep ochre, yellowish olive, olive brown, rusty or cinnamon brown or deep brown
Ring usually either absent or not membranous

Lignicolous Brown Spored Family

Growing on wood

Medium To Big Lignicolous Brown Spored Subfamily

Cap usually more than 2" across, and sometimes up to 8; usually tan, yellow, or pumpkin-colored

Agrocybe Genus

Cap dull brown to tan; glabrous (occasionally slimy or viscid); often cracking open like an overripe tomato in age; usually 2-3" across
Fruits in great quantity in wood chips in the springtime
Growing either on hardwood or in grass

Links from Look-alikes
Tricholoma-like Fungi Subtribe

Woodland habitat (mycorrhizal)
Stem fleshy, not rooting

Agrocybe erebia (Fries) R. Kühner

Here are the characters that distinguish this species from the others in its group. For its more general characters, see higher up on the page.
If there's just a few words or a microscopic feature here, a more thorough description can be found above.

Diagnosis

Cap up to 2 1/4" across, with a low, broad umbo; dark brown or dark reddish brown; slimy or viscid when fresh; often drying in hygrophanous zones, with the disk and margin remaining darker than the tissue in between
With a fragile but membranous partial veil forming a persistent annulus
Gills often subdecurrent
On the ground in cultivated areas and damp woods

Microscropic Characters

Spores 11-15.5 x 5-7 µm

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