this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025
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Mycology

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Sorry, no pictures of the underside. I was in a hurry and didn't have time. They shriveled up by the time I got back to them (a few hours later).

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[–] Geodad@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I could be wrong. Please correct me if I am. I'm a novice.

[–] the_artic_one@programming.dev 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

So, these mushrooms aren't really what I would describe as Clitocyboid.

When I think Clitocybe, I think a small to medium fleshy mushroom with a flat or depressed cap and gills that run down the stem. The cap will be fleshy and bald without much ornamentation besides possibly being a little translucent striate around the edge and there likely won't be any veil.

These are smallish mushrooms with thin insubstantial caps which almost no flesh and stems that look hollow and brittle. The caps are heavy pleated and have an indistinct dark "eye" in the center. I can't see the gills here but I suspect they don't run down the stems at all.

I would generally describe that as "mycenoid". A mycena is generally a small insubstantial mushroom with a heavily pleated cap which is usually bell shaped or conical. They have thin hollow stems and and gills which are usually attached to the stem but don't run down it much.

So you could start looking at mycena and similar mushrooms but if you took a spore print (or looked carefully at the gills to see if older ones have spore-colored gills or if there's a colored tint to the shadow between the gills) you might find that these have dark spores. You may also notice that the stems on these are a little wider than one would typically expect from a mycena. In that case you would want to look at the Psathyrella family, specifically the "inky caps" which have heavily pleated caps like mycena.

Most mushrooms people call "inky caps" never really open up like these, they spread their spores by dissolving into ink and letting the liquid carry spores to the surrounding area but there are a few kinds which don't in genera Coprinellus, and Parasaola/Tuloseus. Both of these genera tend to start out brownish/tan and fade to grey/white with often retaining some of the brown in the center of the cap (often called the "disc") which sounds a lot like the mushrooms in this photo.

TL;DR: definitely not Clitocybe, possibly Mycena (or something similar), most likely Psathyrellaceae of some sort. Perhaps Coprinellus Disseminatus or some Parasola species.

[–] Geodad@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

The ones in the pot curled up and dried out. They were all white, and new ones popped up the next morning.

[–] Geodad@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Thank you! I started second guessing myself as soon as I hit post.

You've given me some Wikipedia articles to fall asleep to tonight. 🙂

I have noticed mushrooms with similar structure along the path that I walk the dog. They all have brown caps.

Wikipedia honestly kind of sucks for mushroom information, the information is very general and they only cover a handful of species.

Region-specific resources are the best but I don't really know any for your region so I'll recommend MushroomExpert.com which is a good site for general North American mushroom info. Here's the page on inkys you may want to check out.