Xerula     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)

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
Stalk fibrous, not fracturing like a piece of chalk

None of the special features distinguishing the other white-spored genera:
Gills not free, as in the Lepiotas and Amanitas
Basidia not extra-long, as in the Hygrophoraceae
Spores smooth, except for Lentinellus

Growing on the ground

Stalk growing into the ground like a root
Growing in woods

Xerula     Genus     R. Maire

Diagnosis

• Cap brown or greyish brown; often slimy in wet weather; usually radially wrinkled or broadly striate
  
• Stem white, sometimes with iridescent brown caulocystidia; fibrous, often visibly twisted
  
• Gills white

Microscropic Characters

• Spores cyanophilous, inamyloid

Comments

Narrow down your identification:

Cap up to 4 3/4" across
Stem covered with brown iridescent caulocystidia, often distributed in bands

Cap up to 3" across, more on the greyish side than the other species
Odor of geraniums or carrots
Stem white
Spores quite long

Stem white
No odor
Spores smaller, rounder

Gill edges rusty brown
Entire fruiting body staining a darker rusty brown when cut or bruised
Cap a little more reddish than the other species

Cap up to 2 1/2" across, pale brown to yellowish brown, with radiating ridges (not striations: too big and widely spaced)
Stem up to 3" long, pale brown

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