Parasola plicatilis

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone or scattered in grassy areas, usually in direct sunlight; summer and fall (and over winter in warmer climates); widely distributed in North America. Cap: 10-35 mm across at maturity; ovoid at first, becoming convex or bell-shaped, then flat; bald; deeply grooved from the margin nearly to the center; yellowish to orangish brown when young, becoming gray in the grooves and finally overall; without veil remnants. Gills: Free from the stem; close or nearly distant; whitish at first, becoming dark gray and eventually black. Stem: 35-100 mm long; up to 2 mm thick; equal above a slightly swollen base; fragile; hollow; bald or very finely silky; white; without a ring.

Habitat:

Habitat in grass on lawns at pathsides. Season spring to late autumn. Common. Edible – not worthwhile. Distribution, America and Europe.

Notes:

Morphologically, Parasola plicatilis is very small (maxing out at 35 mm across when mature) and its cap is reminiscent of a tiny little umbrella. It has no universal veil, which means it lacks the dust-like or granulated coating of similar species in Coprinopsis and Coprinellus--but tiny, veil-covered species often look to the naked eye as though they have lost all traces of veil material by the time they are mature, so a microscope should be used to confirm the absence of veil remnants. The spores of Parasola plicatilis are its most distinctive feature: they are fat, angular, large (measuring about 10-13 x 8-11 µ), and feature an eccentric pore.