Psathyrella Genus

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)

Black Spored Suborder

Spore print black, very dark brown, purplish black, or dark purplish brown, but not fitting the Gomphidiaceae
Gills usually light grey, becoming black from spores only when very mature

Psathyrella Genus (Fries) Quélet

Diagnosis

Cap up to 2" across; glabrous; often very fragile; some shade (or shades) of brown or gray; usually hygrophanous; sometimes wrinkled (as in the photo)
Spore print usually dark purplish brown
With a universal veil that usually persists as a few small, white fragments on the stem, cap, and hanging from the cap margin
On very well-decayed wood or enriched soil, sometimes in lawns, sometimes in large troops
Cap usually almost flat at maturity

Comments

Psathyrella appears very late in the succession of species on decayed wood. Often, it doesn't appear until the wood has been reduced to powdery humus
There are many species of Psathyrella, and many still to be discovered. Don't be frustrated if your "Psathyrella" keys out to this point and then no further. That's the state of the art
As it so happens, the photos that we have of Psathyrellas so far are all of unusually robust and colorful ones (no, I'm not joking). Now that we have another reason to take pictures besides aesthetics and personal interest, we'll be documenting more of the bland, uninteresting ones to help you KNOW that the greyish, boring-looking thing growing in your lawn is really a Psathyrella

Narrow down your identification:

Psathyrella candolleana

Cap up to 3" across; extremely fragile; pale grey, with brown and distinct but subtle purple tones
Cap margin and stalk often hung with shreds of the evanescent partial veil

Psathyrella epimyces

Growing on flattened-looking fruiting bodies of Coprinus comatus

Psathyrella foenisecii

Cap up to 1" across; dark brown, fading to tan (often with a darker zone at the margin for a while); becoming areolate when it dries out.
In grass

Psathyrella hydrophila

Spore print very dark brown
Cap up to 2" across; some shade(s) of brown
Partial veil fragments often present on stem and cap margin

Psathyrella rugocephala

Cap up to 4" across; closely radially puckered; some shade(s) of brown
On deciduous wood

Psathyrella velutina

Cap up to 4" across; hemispherical, sometimes umbonate; brown to yellow brown; covered with blackish fibrillose tufts that may wash off in age
Gills mottled in age; their edges white, often beaded with drops of moisture when fresh
Partial veil a cortina
Stalk often fibrillose (like cap) below the ring, but these wash off in age also

Lookalikes:

Coprinus disseminatus

Cap up to 1/2" across; often with white flecks of universal veil material
Growing in dense clusters

Coprinus plicatilis

Cap up to 3/4" across
Growing in small tufts or well-spaced troops

Panaeolus semiovatus

Cap whitish, shaped like half an egg
Stalk concolorous
Annulus present

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Psathyrella Genus

Psathyrella Genus

Fruiting body containing fibers (usually in the stalk)

Spore print black, very dark brown, purplish black, or dark purplish brown, but not fitting the Gomphidiaceae Gills usually light grey, becoming black from spores only when very mature

Psathyrella Genus (Fries) Quélet

Diagnosis

Comments

Narrow down your identification:

Cap up to 3" across; extremely fragile; pale grey, with brown and distinct but subtle purple tones Cap margin and stalk often hung with shreds of the evanescent partial veil

Growing on flattened-looking fruiting bodies of Coprinus comatus

Cap up to 1" across; dark brown, fading to tan (often with a darker zone at the margin for a while); becoming areolate when it dries out. In grass

Spore print very dark brown Cap up to 2" across; some shade(s) of brown Partial veil fragments often present on stem and cap margin

Cap up to 4" across; closely radially puckered; some shade(s) of brown On deciduous wood

Lookalikes:

Cap up to 1/2" across; often with white flecks of universal veil material Growing in dense clusters

Cap up to 3/4" across Growing in small tufts or well-spaced troops

Cap whitish, shaped like half an egg Stalk concolorous Annulus present

Spore print black, very dark brown, purplish black, or dark purplish brown, but not fitting the Gomphidiaceae
Gills usually light grey, becoming black from spores only when very mature

Cap up to 3" across; extremely fragile; pale grey, with brown and distinct but subtle purple tones
Cap margin and stalk often hung with shreds of the evanescent partial veil

Cap up to 1" across; dark brown, fading to tan (often with a darker zone at the margin for a while); becoming areolate when it dries out.
In grass

Spore print very dark brown
Cap up to 2" across; some shade(s) of brown
Partial veil fragments often present on stem and cap margin

Cap up to 4" across; closely radially puckered; some shade(s) of brown
On deciduous wood

Cap up to 1/2" across; often with white flecks of universal veil material
Growing in dense clusters

Cap up to 3/4" across
Growing in small tufts or well-spaced troops

Cap whitish, shaped like half an egg
Stalk concolorous
Annulus present