Rhodocollybia     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

Found in woods
Not rooting

Cap up to 2" across, occasionally larger; sometimes purplish
Usually growing on leaves and duff rather than directly on the ground

Rhodocollybia     Genus     Singer

Diagnosis

• Spores print pinkish; spores cyanophilous and at least some of them dextrinoid

Narrow down your identification:

Gills white to dingy pink, entire at first, becoming scalloped or eroded at maturity
Stalk concolorous with cap, often clavate (large end down); striate the long way and often twisted; tough; hollow in age, base canescent with mycelium
On ground

Entire fruiting body pale, developing reddish brown streaks or spots in age
Cap up to 4" across; pinkish buff when young, fading
Stalk up to 5" long, 1/2" wide; striate and easy to split the long way; slightly rooting, narrowing as it enters the ground
Taste bitter
On rich humus or buried wood

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