Bolbitius     Genus

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)

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

Links from Look-alikes Coprinus     Genus All deliquescing fungi go here All striate or pleated-capped non-Gomphidius black-spored mushrooms go here (but not randomly wrinkled ones: they go in Psathyrella) When young, the cap usually cylindrical, and in any case much taller than it is wide and hugging the stem tightly; the gills at this stage are white, and packed very close together Cap usually deliquescing and surviving in age as uplifted tatters or split fragments Cap often covered with powder or tiny hairs, especially when young

Bolbitius     Genus     Fries

Diagnosis

• Cap slimy, deliquescing in maturity; striate, at least in maturity
  
• Cap fragile, hollow

• Spores with an apical pore

Comments

Narrow down your identification:

• Cap not yellow at any stage in development
  
• Usually on decaying wood in the woods, but sometimes on manure or other man-made substrates

• Cap yellow at some stage in life
  
• Usually growing on manure or composted ground; sometimes on other vegetable litter

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