A tiny, extremely fragile coprinoid mushroom that appears in troops of hundreds on and around decaying stumps and buried wood. The small, pleated, whitish to grayish brown caps and grayish black gills look like an inky cap's, but the gills do not dissolve into ink.
Not a food species; edibility is not documented in the sources consulted and the caps are too small and fragile to be worth eating.
Never eat a wild mushroom based on a web page — confirm with an expert.
Habitat
Saprobic in dense clusters and troops, often hundreds of fruitbodies, on decaying wood, especially around the bases of stumps and over buried roots. Spring, summer and fall.
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Widely distributed in North America; also common in Europe.
Characteristics
Cap: up to 2 cm, oval becoming broadly convex or bell-shaped; white with a brownish center when young, later grayish brown; grooved from the margin nearly to the center. Gills: attached or free, close to nearly distant, white, then gray, then blackish; not deliquescing. Stem: 1.5-4 cm long, 1-2 mm thick, equal, smooth, often curved, white, hollow. Flesh: very thin and fragile. Odor and taste: not distinctive. Spore print: black or blackish brown. Spores: 6.5-10 x 4-6 um, elliptical, smooth, with a central pore (MushroomExpert).
