Lacrymaria lacrymabunda

What You Should Know

Lacrymaria lacrymabunda is an edible mushroom in the family Psathyrellaceae. The mushroom is characterized by its robust fruit body, with a yellowish-brown fibrillose cap, thick gills that produce black spores, a yellowish-brown fibrillose stem, and a persistent fibrillose-cottony ring around the stem.

The mushroom grows in grassy areas, parks, open woodlands, lawns, fields, and along roadsides. It can be found throughout North America, Central America, Europe, Northern Asia, and New Zealand.

Lacrimaria lacrymabunda is not recommended for beginner mushroom collectors due to its resemblance to other inedible or poisonous species.

Other names: Weeping Widow, Tränender Saumpilz (German), Tranende franjehoed (Netherlands), Křehutka Sametová (Czech Republic).

Lacrymaria lacrymabunda Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   The weeping widow mushroom has a 0.11-0.39 in (3–10 cm) wide cap. It is convex when young, becoming broadly convex, broadly bell-shaped, or nearly flat; dry; finely appressed-fibrillose when fresh and young. Sometimes the cap becomes more or less bald in age; grayish brown to medium yellowish-brown, fading to dull tan. The young margin sometimes hung with whitish partial veil remnants, at least when young.

2. Gills

   Closely attached to the stem, with short gills that are initially pale but darken to grayish brown and eventually dark brown, and has a mottled appearance and whitish edges at maturity.

3. Stem

   1.6-3.9 in (4-10 cm) long and 0.16-0.39 in (4-10 mm) thick. The stem has a fibrillose or nearly bald surface with a fragile ring or ring zone that darkens due to spores and is white on top, pale brownish underneath, hollow, and with a white basal mycelium.

4. Flesh

   Whitish to watery brownish; unchanging when sliced.

5. Odor and Taste

   The smell is usually pleasantly mushroomy. The taste is mild with an often slightly bitter aftertaste.

6. Spore Print

   Very dark brown to black.

7. Habitat

   Grows on dead or decaying organic matter in groups, alone, or in clusters on lawns, pastures, roadsides, and gravelly soil, often near recently dead hardwood trees, sometimes in wooded areas. It appears during the summer to fall season and is widespread in North America and Europe.

Lacrymaria lacrymabunda Look-Alikes

1. Lacrymaria echiniceps

   Similar but has a more prominently fibrillose-scaly cap, a scaly stem, and smaller spores.

2. Lacrymaria pyrotricha

   Has an orange colored cap skin.

Lacrymaria lacrymabunda Taxonomy and Etymology

In 1785 the French mycologist Jean Baptiste Francois (Pierre) Bulliard described this species and gave it the binomial name Agaricus lacrymabundus.

In 1887 Narcisse Theophile Patouillard transferred this mushroom to its present genus, establishing its currently-accepted scientific name as Lacrymaria lacrymabunda.

The generic name Lacrymaria means producing tears (crying) and the specific epithet lacrymabunda means an abundance of tears.

Lacrymaria lacrymabunda Synonyms and Varietes

• Agaricus lacrymabundus Bull. (1785)

• Agaricus areolatus Klotzsch 1836

• Agaricus lacrymabundus Bull., 1785

• Agaricus lacrymabundus subsp. velutinus (Pers.) Fr.

• Agaricus lacrymabundus var. lacrymabundus Bull. 1785

• Agaricus lacrymabundus var. velutinus (Pers.) Fr., 1821

• Agaricus lacrymabundus velutinus (Pers.) Fr. 1821

• Agaricus macrourus Pers., 1793

• Agaricus velutinus Pers., 1801

• Agaricus velutinus var. velutinus Pers. 1801

• Coprinus velutinus (Pers.) Gray, 1821

• Coprinus velutinus Gray 1821

• Drosophila velutina (Pers.) Kühner & Romagn., 1953

• Geophila lacrymabunda (Bull.) Quélet, 1886

• Geophila lacrymabunda var. lacrymabunda (Bull.) Quél., 1886

• Hypholoma aggregatum Peck

• Hypholoma boughtonii Peck

• Hypholoma lacrymabundum (Bull.) Sacc., 1887

• Hypholoma velutinum (Pers.) P.Kumm., 1871

• Lacrymaria lacrymabunda f. gracillima J.E.Lange

• Lacrymaria lacrymabunda forma lacrymabunda (Bull.) Pat. 1887

• Lacrymaria lacrymabunda subsp. gracillima J.E.Lange, 1939

• Lacrymaria lacrymabunda subsp. velutina (Pers.) J.E.Lange, 1939

• Lacrymaria lacrymabunda var. lacrymabunda (Bull.) Pat. 1887

• Lacrymaria lacrymabunda var. velutina (Pers.) J.E.Lange, 1939

• Lacrymaria velutina (Pers.) Konrad & Maubl., 1925

• Lacrymaria velutina f. gracillima (J.E.Lange) Anon.

• Lacrymaria velutina forma velutina (Pers.) Konrad & Maubl. 1925

• Lacrymaria velutina subsp. gracillima Anon.

• Psathyra lacrymabunda (Bull.) P.Kumm., 1871

• Psathyrella lacrymabunda (Bull.) M.M. Moser ex A.H. Sm., 1953

• Psathyrella lacrymabunda var. aggregata (Peck) A.H.Sm.

• Psathyrella velutina (Pers.) Singer, 1951

• Psathyrella velutina var. albispora Derbsch & Schmitt

• Psathyrella velutina var. boughtonii (Peck) A.H.Sm.

• Psilocybe areolata (Klotzsch) Sacc. 1887

• Psilocybe cernua subsp. areolata (Klotzsch) Bres., 1931

• Psilocybe cernua var. areolata (Klotzsch) Bres. 1931

Sources:

Photo 1 - Author: User:Strobilomyces (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic)

Photo 2 - Author: zaca (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)

Photo 3 - Author: zaca (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)

Photo 4 - Author: zaca (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)

Photo 5 - Author: Jerzy Opioła (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)