Big Lepiotas     Section

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.

Fruiting body containing fibers (usually in the stalk)

Spore print "light-colored": white or buff, sometimes tinged with pink or tan. Greenish and (except for the Russulales) yellow spore prints also go here
Stalk fibrous, not fracturing like a piece of chalk

Gills free
Annulus usually present (on some small species, the partial veil may remain instead as scraps of tissue on the edge of the cap)
Cap often umbonate, often with a concentric design of scales that are an intrinsic part of the cap (not easily peeled off without taking part of the cap with it)
The cap is also usually egg-shaped or completely round (like a globe) at first - - it doesn't start to open until the stem is almost fully grown

Diagnosis

• Cap can reach more than 2-3" across at maturity
  
• Flesh sometimes changing color if cut or bruised
  
• Ring often thick-edged and can be slid up and down the stalk
  
• If the size of your collection is borderline, try this choice first

• Spores typically thick-walled and with an apical pore

Narrow down your identification:

• Spores dull green
  
• Cap with semi-concentric scales, as in the picture
  
• Annulus thick, can usually be slid up and down the stalk

Cap up to 4 1/2" across; whitish, covered with pointed brown scales that rub off easily
Partial veil cottony, fibrilose; leaving a ring that is often evanescent
Stalk white or brownish
On the ground in leaf litter

Cap up to 6" across;
Cap cuticle maroon, breaking up into scales as the cap expands; the flesh that shows between the scales is white at first, but ages to a lighter version of the scale color; the umbo stays solid maroon
Stem wider in the middle than at either end (this can be seen a little bit in the mushrooms in the lower left and upper right in the picture)
Flesh turns yellow or yellowish orange when cut (try the stalk), then slowly maroon; the flesh in general ages or dries maroon
I find it in the city in troops and small clusters on wood chips or mulch. It also grows in the wild on stumps

Cap up to 3" across; greyish brown; smooth
Stalk up to 12" high

Entire fruiting body white, smooth
Cap up to 4" across; occasionally slightly scaly
Usually in grass, but sometimes in leaf litter
Ring sometimes falls off in age

Cap up to 10" across; egg-shaped when young, opening up until flat with a little umbo in the center
Cap cuticle brown, breaking up into wooly scales as the cap expands; the flesh that shows between the scales is white at first, but soon weathers to a lighter version of the scale color; the umbo stays solid brown
The stalk similarly covered with a brown skin that breaks up into bands of scales
Flesh white, sometimes tinged with red; not changing color when cut or bruised
Typically growing singly or in sparse troops at the edge of woods (at the edge of a road, path, or meadow), but also in open woods

Cap up to 8" across; not umbonate - - flat in the center
Cap cuticle cinnamon brown, breaking up into scales as the cap expands; the flesh that shows between the scales is dingy white at first, but ages to a lighter version of the scale color; the disk stays solid cinnamon brown
Flesh staining orange (a dull carrot color), then reddish brown when cut (try the stem)
Stalk often enlarged below, or forming a rimmed basal bulb
Grows singly or in groups in any kind of plant litter or compost

Cap up to 3 1/4" across; umbo very slight, gently sloping; margin splitting in age
Cap cuticle coral to pinkish orange, breaking up into scales as the cap expands; the flesh that shows between the scales is white at first; the umbo remaining solid, darker than the rest of the cap: deep red to reddish brown
Growing on the ground in hardwood forests, in leaf litter and in compost

Lookalikes: Chlorophyllum molybdites Cap up to 12" across; grey; slightly umbonate On grass (including lawns) in hot weather (almost always over 90 degrees) Flesh sometimes slowly turning reddish when cut

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