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
Inocybe GenusCap with prominent radial fibers, often splitting radially
All parts of the mushroom often scaly, scurfy, or tufted with minute hairs (barely visible on the stem in this image)
Cap usually less than 2" across
Silky Inocybe Section
Diagnosis
- Cap surface silky; lacking chunky scales or coarse bunches of fibers
Narrow down your identification:
Inocybe albodiscaCap up to 1 3/8" across; brownish, with white umbo
Odor spermatic
With any kind of tree, but especially hemlock
Inocybe bronze
Inocybe geophyllaCap up to 1 1/4" across; umbonate
Cap and stem white
Odor variable: often slight, sometimes spermatic, sometimes "scented" (!)
