Grassland Trich     Tribe

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

Diagnosis

• Growing out in the open (lawn, field, etc.)

Narrow down your identification:

• Gills turn purple with FeSO4
  
• Mainly distinguishable from Tricholoma because it doesn't need to grow near trees, and because they don't grow in clusters

• Gills crowded
  
• Cap bluntly umbonate
  
• Stem usually striate lengthwise with dark fibers

Lookalikes: Marasmius oreades Cap at first brown, campanulate, smooth and almost shiny; becoming flat with an umbo, faded to tan and dull; up to 2" across but usually only 1- 1 1/2" Gills white at first, becoming concolorous with cap, adnexed Stem easy to snap when the cap is still campanulate, becoming very tough and flexible: pull on the stem and the whole thing comes right out of the ground with a sparse tuft of substrate attached In grass, often in fairy rings Clitocybe dealbata Cap up to 2" across; sometimes with a greyish or pinkish tinge, gills likewise; margin irregular Stalk often acentric Growing in grass in fields rather than in woods

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