A medium-sized, white-spored agaric that looks like a Lepiota, with a brown cap covered in reddish-brown scales, free creamy gills and a fragile ring. It was described from oak forest in Costa Rica in 1991 and has since been reported from Brazil and from Kerala, India. Its globose, spiny, inamyloid spores and bilateral gill trama separate it from Lepiota and its relatives; molecular work now places the genus in Amanitaceae.
Unknown. No edibility information was found for this species. It is rare and poorly documented and belongs to Amanitaceae, a family with deadly members, so it should not be eaten.
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Habitat
On soil among litter. The type collection came from Quercus forest in southern Costa Rica; Indian collections came from litter in a sacred grove.
Distribution
Costa Rica (type locality, Quercus forest), Brazil (reported 2007) and Kerala, India (reported 2001). Known from few collections. Two further Catatrama species have since been recognized, one from India and one from Australia; whether the 2001 Indian collections still belong to C. costaricensis was not confirmed.
Characteristics
Cap: 3-6.5 cm, convex to plane with a broad umbo, brown with reddish-brown squamules that can wash off in rain; margin appendiculate, uplifted with age. Gills: free, creamy white, close, with lamellulae. Stem: 4-7 cm x 4-8 mm, cylindrical, solid, slightly enlarged base with white mycelial cords, squamulose below the ring. Ring: fragile, leaving an indistinct zone on the upper stem. Flesh: white, soft; odour pleasant, floral. Spores: 5.3-7.5 x 6-7.5 µm, globose, echinulate, inamyloid, no germ pore (Indian material). Spore print: white.
