A small, fragile, brown mushroom with a movable ring that grows in wood chips, flower beds, compost and landscaped ground. It contains alpha-amanitin, the liver-destroying toxin of deadly Amanita and Galerina species, and is deadly poisonous. Its tawny cap fades as it dries, and its gills become rusty brown. It is easily overlooked as a generic 'little brown mushroom'.
DEADLY POISONOUS. Contains amatoxins (alpha-amanitin), which can cause fatal liver failure; symptoms are delayed for hours. It shares wood-chip and garden habitats with psilocybin mushrooms and other small brown species, so never eat small brown ringed mushrooms from landscaping.
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Habitat
Saprotrophic on soil rich in woody debris: wood-chip mulch, flower beds, compost piles, landscaped areas and woods. Fruits in spring and summer in temperate regions, and late fall to winter in Mediterranean climates such as California.
Distribution
North America, mainly from upstate New York to Michigan in the east and along the Pacific coast (especially common in the Pacific Northwest; also California); also reported from Europe, Asia and Australia.
Characteristics
Cap: 1-2.5 cm, conic to bell-shaped, then convex to nearly flat, sometimes with a small umbo; orange-brown to butterscotch, paler at the striate margin, hygrophanous (fading to buff); smooth to finely wrinkled. Gills: narrowly attached, close, whitish to cream-buff, then rusty brown; edges finely fringed. Stem: 1.5-5 cm x 1-3 mm, fragile, hollow, whitish to brownish, pruinose above. Ring: membranous, whitish to brownish, flared, grooved on the upper side; may shrivel with age. Spore print: dull rusty brown. Spores: 7.5-9.5 x 5-6 µm, ellipsoid, smooth, with a germ pore. Cheilocystidia: lageniform.
