Psathyrella longipes
Description
Psathyrella longipes is a species of agaric fungus in the family Psathyrellaceae and the Brittlestem genus, Psathyrella. The relatively large, broadly conic, hygrophanous cap with an appendiculate margin and "leggy" stipe help to separate this mushroom from most related Psathyrellas. Psathyrella candolleana is also appendiculate, but has a convex cap at maturity, and is more robust in stature. It has worldwide distribution.
Cautious experimentation has shown many species of Psathyrella to be edible and delicious, but you need a lot of them to make any kind of quantity. Do not try this yourself as they are difficult to ID correctly to species and there have been no real studies of their safety. That's why Ultimate Mushroom put it in the poisonous category.
Common names: Tall Psathyrella.
Mushroom Identification
Cap
2.5-4.5 cm broad, conic, becoming broadly conic to campulate in age; margin striate, decorated with evanescent white veil fragments; surface obscurely fibrillose, glabrous in age, hygrophanous, brown, to dull mustard-brown, fading from the disc to buff-brown, pallid or whitish at maturity. Flesh, thin, pallid, fragile.
Gills
Close, adnate, narrow, pallid at first, dark-brown to blackish-brown in age, the edges lighter.
Stipe
6-12 cm long, 3-6 mm thick, fragile, hollow, straight, equal; surface smooth to patchy fibrillose, pallid, with pubescent mycelium at the base; veil evanescent, cottony/membranous, leaving white fragments on the young pileus.
Spores
10-14 x 7-9 µm, elliptical, smooth, with an apical germ pore, nonamyloid.
Spore Print
Dark-brown to blackish-brown.
Habitat
Solitary to scattered in leaf litter and well decayed woody debris, under both hardwoods and conifers; fruiting from after the fall rains to late winter.
Similar Species
Psathyrella hydrophila differs in its clustered habit, usually at the base of hardwood stumps, and has a convex cap. Finally, our most common Psathyrella, P. corrugis is smaller, and young caps are not normally appendiculate.
History
It was originally described as Hypholoma longipes by Charles Horton Peck in 1895; Alexander H. Smith transferred it to Psathyrella in 1941.
As its name implies, the Tall Psathyrella is unusual in its genus in having a relatively long stipe. Its cap is 2.5-4.5cm in diameter and conical and has a "veil" of creamy-white fragments which contrast with its basic dull brown color.
Hypholoma longipes Peck (1895) is a synonym.
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Ron Pastorino (Ronpast) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 2 - Author: B59210 (CC BY-SA 4.0)