Tough LignoTrich     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 trees or dead wood, leaves, or sticks, or organic debris, often in moss

Diagnosis

• Assume a lateral stem, unless otherwise noted in the diagnoses below
  
• If laterally stemmed, then gills strongly decurrent

Narrow down your identification:

• Cap always smooth (perhaps thinly, minutely furry), never scaly or thickly or coarsely hairy
  
• Gills white to buff, though perhaps discoloring yellow (along with cap) in age, unless covered by a veil
  
• Growing on wood

• Cap often furry or virgate; usually over 4" across
  
• All purple-tinged collections go here
  
• Fruiting body tough to extremely tough
  
• Margin usually becoming wavy and irregular in age

Lookalikes: LentinoLignoTrich     Subtribe All mushrooms with serrated gills go here If the stem is central and well-developed, then the fruiting body (even the cap) is large and extremely tough

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