A small, ochre to saffron-yellow mushroom of mossy grassland and conifer woods, with a dry, powdery-granular cap and a stem sheathed in granules below a fleeting ring. It has an unpleasant earthy odor, like husked corn.
Not recommended for eating. It is small and of no culinary value, and it resembles poisonous small Lepiota species such as L. castanea, which is deadly and contains amatoxins. Small Lepiota species have free gills and a scaly rather than powdery-granular cap; check gill attachment and cap texture carefully.
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Habitat
On the ground among moss in damp grassland, heaths, conifer forest clearings and mossy woods, among grass or bracken, sometimes with willow; usually on acid soils.
Distribution
Widespread and common in the northern temperate zone of Europe and North America.
Characteristics
Cap: 1-5 cm, convex to bell-shaped, later flattening around a low umbo; dry and powdery-granular, often radially wrinkled; margin shaggy or fringed with veil remnants; saffron-yellow to orange-ochre, sometimes paler whitish yellow. Gills: adnexed, crowded, white becoming cream. Stem: cylindrical; smooth and pale above a short-lived powdery ring, sheathed below in a granular, cap-colored coating. Flesh: thin, yellowish. Odor: unpleasant, earthy or like husked corn. Spore print: white.
