Cap: 0.7-1.2 (2.5) cm broad. Nearly hemispheric to convex, expanding to broadly convex with age. Margin translucent-striate when moist and often appendiculate at first, with minute fibrillose remnants of the partial veil. Reddish cinnamon brown to dark brown. Surface moist when wet, soon dry; smooth overall to slightly wrinkled towards the disc with age. Margin translucent-striate when moist to slightly wrinkled towards the disc.
Gills: Attachment adnexed, close, and moderately broad. Dull rusty brown with a whitish fringe along the margin.
Stem: 20-40 mm long by 1-1.4 mm thick. Equal to slightly curved at the base, fragile, easily breaking. Whitish at first, becoming grayish or brownish at the apex, and often adorned with whitish mycelium at the base that bruise bluish. Partial veil thinly cortinate, sometimes leaving trace remnants along the cap margin, soon disappearing. No annulus formed.
Microscopic features: Spores rusty brown in deposit, 6.7-7.5 (8.5) by 4.5-5 microns. Basidia 4-spored. Pleurocystidia absent. Cheilocystidia 20-25 by 7.5-11 microns.
Habit, habitat and distribution: Scattered in grassy areas in lawns and fields in the summer and fall. Reported from Washington, Colorado, Vancouver, B.C., and temperate regions of central and northern Europe.
Comments: Potently active, although petite in size. Beug and Bigwood (1982b) found 0.93silocybin but no psilocin. Christiansen et al. (1984) reported ranges of 0.33-0.55silocybin and 0.004-0.007silocin. Gartz (1992) found 0.78-1.01silocybin, no psilocin, and 0.12-0.20 baeocystin. This species is probably widely distributed across the temperate regions of the world but goes unnoticed because of its minute stature. Conocybe smithii is virtually identical except that it favours mossy environments and has longer spores. Beware! Some Galerinas, which can be poisonous, resemble Conocybes.
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