Photo by Roadkill
CAP: (5-) 10-20 (-35) µm in diam., conic to convex, then campanulate or subumbonate, frequently subpapillate, becoming shallowly depressed at the disc or plane in the old specimens, glabrous, but with traces of silky white veil at the margin in young stages, even to slightly translucent striate at the margin when moist, viscid to lubricous, with cuticle removable, hygrophanous, dark reddish brown or orangish brown to olivaceous brown or fulvous brown, fading out to ochraceous or pale ochre tone, staining slightly greenish-blue when injured or with the age.
GILLS: adnate or sinuate or adnexed, yellowish brown at first, soon violet brown or chocolate brown to blackish violet, uniform or somewhat mottled, with whitish edges.
STEM: (20-) 35-65 (-75) x (1.5-) 2-4 (-6) mm, equal or slightly enlarged at the base, cylindric or subcylindric, twisted striate at times, flexuous, glabrous to slightly fibrillose, dry, stuffed with white mycelium to hollow, white or whitish silky to ochraceous or brownish fibrillose; easily staining blue-green when injured or touched, mainly on the base, which finally becomes blackish.
VEIL: as a white, thin membrane forming an annulus, fragile and persistent, rarely absent (Plate 7), thin, white, smooth below but slightly striate above, with subgelatinous margin; easily bluing along the margin.
CONTEXT: (flesh) whitish or light to dark yellowish-brown, translucent to somewhat pliant in the pileus, tough in the stipe, staining blue when cut mainly in young stages. Odor and taste strong farinaceous in young stages, but weak in the adults. KOH staining the pileus and context reddish brown, negative or rose on the stipe or in young specimens.
SPORE PRINT: deep violaceous to dark violaceous purple.
SPORES: (8.2-) 9.3-10.4 (-13.5) X 6-7.1 (-7.7) x 5.5-6.6 µm, subrhomboid in face view, Subellipsoid in side view, with a hilar appendage visible and a truncate apex with a broad germ pore, thick walled, dingy yellow brown. basidia: 16.5-33 x 5.5-8.8 µm, 4-spored, hyaline, sterigmata 3-4.4 µm long, subcylindric, with the median region slightly constricted. pleurocystidia: absent. cheilocystidia: 22-30 x 4.4-6.6 µm, abundant, forming a sterile band, hyaline, lageniform, fusiform-lanceolate or fusoid-ampullaceous, with an elongate and flexuous neck, 1-2.2 µm in diameter, sometimes irregularly branched. Subhymenium seemingly not cellular, with yellowish brown, hyphae with pigment irregularly incrusted and distributed on the hyphae walls. Trama regular with hyaline elongate cylindric or subglobose hyphae cells. Epicutis consisting of a thick pellicle with filamentous hyphae, moderately to strongly gelatinized, hyaline or yellowish, 1.6-5 µm in diameter. Hypodermium of compact subglobose hyphae, 5-10 µm diam., hyaline or more or less colores brownish to brownish red. The hyphae of the annulus hyaline, parallel to the surface, some gelatinized, 2-9 µm diam. Yellow brown lactiferous hyphae 2-5 µm diam. present in the hypodermium. Clamp connections present on all the hyphae.
HABITAT AND DISTRIBUTION: Scattered to gregarious in dense clusters, rarely solitary, on soil or on small plant fragments such as bark residues, or on bark mulch of conifers, or on well decomposed manure, in grasses, gardens or lawns in the cities, rarely in grassland or meadows. Fruiting from August to December. Only known from the Northwest North America, from Vancouver (Canada) to California (U.S.A.), but especially common in Washington and Oregon states. Reported from California as far south as Santa Cruz, but extremely rare in California.
