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)
White Spored Suborder
Diagnosis
- 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
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Stalk fibrous, not fracturing like a piece of chalk
Microscropic Characters
Narrow down your identification:
Hygrophoraceae Family- Gills (at least) with a distinct waxy or silky feel, due to unusually long basidia
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No annulus, armilla or volva
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Cap often slimy
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They tend to grow in cold areas, and sometimes fruit at times when it's too cold for other mushrooms
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Several have an insulating slimy universal veil. This veil leaves the cap and the stalk slimy, except for the upper stalk where the gills covered it when the mushroom was a button.
Lepiota Genus- Gills free
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Annulus usually present (on some small species, the partial veil may remain instead as scraps of tissue on the edge of the cap)
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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)
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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
Tricholomataceae Family
