Lyophyllum Genus

Key to Gilled Mushrooms Key

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.

Agaricales Order

Fruiting body containing fibers (usually in the stalk)

White Spored Suborder

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

Tricholomataceae Family

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

Terrestrial Trich Subfamily

Growing on the ground

Grassland Trich Tribe

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

Lyophyllum Genus Karsten

Diagnosis

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

Microscropic Characters

Basidia carminophilous and siderophilous

Comments

The distinguishing features of this taxon are chemical and microscopic. See comments under Lyophyllum decastes for distinguishing it from Tricholoma in the field

This genus is a toughy: if you put a single fruiting body of Lyophyllum decastes, by far the most common species in this genus, next to one of the grey (and poisonous!) Tricholomas, it would be almost impossible to tell them apart, even for an expert. So you have to go by their growth habit: L. decastes grows in dense clusters, while the Tricholomas at most grow in troops; and it is not mycorrhizal, so it can grow out in the open, away from trees

Narrow down your identification:

Lyophyllum decastes

Densely cestipose in open and disturbed areas
Cap 1-5" across; margin inrolled at first, uplifted in age; greyish brown to yellowish brown

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Lyophyllum Genus

Lyophyllum Genus

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

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

Lyophyllum Genus Karsten

Diagnosis

Microscropic Characters

Comments

Narrow down your identification:

Densely cestipose in open and disturbed areas Cap 1-5" across; margin inrolled at first, uplifted in age; greyish brown to yellowish brown

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

Densely cestipose in open and disturbed areas
Cap 1-5" across; margin inrolled at first, uplifted in age; greyish brown to yellowish brown