Key to Gilled Mushrooms KeyThis 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 OrderFruiting body containing fibers (usually in the stalk)
Brown, Olive, Orange or Tan Spored SuborderGills 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
Terrestrial Brown Spored FamilyGrowing on the ground
Cortinarius GenusWith a cobwebby partial veil called a cortina
Stem often much wider at the base
Spore print usually rusty brown or cinnamon brown
Myxacium Subgenus Fries
Diagnosis
- Cap and stem slimy
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The slime is often very bitter (touch your tongue to the cap)
Comments
From its stature and color, one would expect to find the mushroom in the picture in Leprocybe. But its sticky beginnings (see the grass still stuck to the cap?) place it in Myxacium
Narrow down your identification:
Cortinarius corrugatusCap up to 4" across; rusty brown to tawny; radially puckered
Growing hardwoods, especially oak and beech
The several annular zones shown in the painting are not a normal feature
Cortinarius iodesCap up to 2" across; dark purple at first, developing more and more white spots with age; disk also becoming more and more yellowish in general in age
