A yellow-brown, ringed Agrocybe of eastern North American hardwood forests. It grows from woody debris and wood chips, usually in spring and early summer. It resembles A. praecox, but it has a tall, flaring white ring, white rhizomorphs at the base, and a woodland rather than urban habitat.
Edibility unknown; not documented in the sources consulted. Do not eat. Small brown-spored ringed mushrooms in wood chips and woody debris include deadly amatoxin-containing species. Pholiotina rugosa (Conocybe filaris) is smaller (cap 1-2 cm) with a thin stem and a ring, and grows in wood chips, flowerbeds and landscaping. Galerina marginata has a rusty-brown spore print and usually grows in clusters on logs and stumps. Full safety details in notes.
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Habitat
Saprobic, alone, scattered or in groups on or near woody debris in lowland hardwood forests; also fruits abundantly in hardwood wood chips and sometimes in grass. Mainly spring and early summer, sometimes into fall.
Distribution
Described from New York; widely distributed in the midwestern and eastern United States (MushroomExpert.com). A New Zealand collection from wood chips in Auckland is recorded by Landcare Research, which suggests it may have arrived with the chips.
Characteristics
Cap: 1.5-5 cm (some sources give up to about 10 cm), convex to broadly bell-shaped; sticky when fresh, then dry and bald; yellow-brown, fading to dull brownish yellow; sometimes radially wrinkled or cracking with age; KOH negative. Gills: narrowly to broadly attached, close, whitish, then dull grayish brown; covered at first by a white partial veil. Stem: 4-10 cm long, 4-9 mm thick, whitish to pale brownish, often twisted, with a slight underground bulb and white rhizomorphs; high, thin, flaring white ring that develops a brown upper edge. Flesh: white, unchanging. Odor and taste: mealy. Spore print: brown. Spores: 7-10.5 x 4-6.5 µm, ellipsoid with a small germ pore (MushroomExpert.com).
