Created: 2008-06-10 10:49:39

By: Irene Andersson (irenea)

Summary: Psathyrella..

In my opinion, almost everything points towards something close to Psathyrella spadicea:
The thick-walled cystidia with crystals, shape and size of the spores (without germ pore), colour of the gills, no veil, cap cuticle with rounded cells.
There is another possibility, a species that only differs in the colour of the spores, P. sarcocephala (cinnamon-coloured, according to Fungi of Switzerland).
There is a lot of confusion regarding P. sarcocephala – sometimes synonymized with the rather large P. spadicea, sometimes with the smaller P. cernua, the latter with more cylindric cystidia and smaller spores.

I’m no expert on these species myself, but if they have the right ideas about them in Fungi of Switzerland, I’d vote for Psathyrella sarcocephala.

These are pictures of Psathyrella spadicea:
http://picasaweb.google.com/...PSATHYRELLA/photo#5109936437707562210
(no visible crystals there, but they dissolve rapidly i KOH..)
http://picasaweb.google.com/...PSATHYRELLA/photo#5109936454887431410
(darker spores than Jason described)

Btw, there are no metuloids (thick-walled cystidia) in the genus Agrocybe, as far as I know.