Inocybe leptophylla

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Inocybe_leptophylla.html

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with conifers (possibly at least facultatively saprobic?); growing alone, scattered, or gregariously around rotting conifer stumps; usually growing from rotting wood but also terrestrial under conifers; spring, summer, and fall; widely distributed in North America.

Cap: 1-4 cm; convex or conical at first, becoming broadly bell-shaped, broadly convex, or nearly flat; dry; scaly; dark brown by all accounts save the original description, which describes the cap as brunneo vel umbrino frequenter purpureo tincto ("brown or dark brown frequently tinted purple").

Gills: Attached to the stem, sometimes by a notch; close; pale brownish, becoming cinnamon brown or medium brown; at first covered by a quickly disappearing cortina.

Stem: 2-5 cm long; up to about .5 cm thick; more or less equal; dry; silky and pale above; brown and hairy to scaly below; solid.

Flesh: Whitish; insubstantial.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface negative.

Spore Print: Dull brown to cinnamon brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 9-12 x 7-9 ; nodulose. Pleurocystidia absent. Cheilocystidia abundant; variously shaped; up to 60 long; hyaline in KOH.

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Phyllotopsis nidulans

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Phyllotopsis_nidulans.html

Ecology: Saprobic on the deadwood of hardwoods and conifers--often those fairly recently dead, with bark still adnate; causing a white, stringy rot; growing gregariously or in overlapping clusters; fall and spring, or over winter in warm climates; widely distributed in North America. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois, Kentucky, Arkansas, Québec, and California.

Cap: 2-7 cm across at maturity; more or less fan-shaped or semicircular in outline; planoconvex; dry; prominently hairy, at least when young; sometimes with a whitish dusting at first, but soon bright orange, fading to yellowish orange or orangish yellow; the margin inrolled when young, and sometimes bruising brownish when handled.

Gills: Close or nearly crowded; thin; short-gills frequent; bright to pale orange.

Stem: Absent or very poorly developed and lateral. Caps sometimes appear to share a poorly defined "base." Occasionally gills develop on the substrate below the cap, appearing almost resupinate.

Flesh: Pale orange; soft; not changing when sliced.

Odor and Taste: Taste mild or foul; odor strong and foul, reminiscent of skunk cabbage--or in some collections not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on cap surface, flesh, and gills.

Spore Print: Very pale pink (often appearing white unless viewed against a pure white background).

Microscopic Features: Spores 4.5-6 x 1.5-2.5 m; allantoid; smooth; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid. Hymenial cystidia not found. Pileipellis a tangled cutis; elements about 2.5 wide, smooth, hyaline, clamped at septa; hairs composed of elements 5-10 m wide, frequently septate, smooth, orangish in KOH, with cylindric to fusiform terminal cells.

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Pseudoomphalina compressipes

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Pseudoomphalina_compressipes.html

Ecology: Saprobic; growing scattered, gregariously, or in small clusters; found in grassy areas and disturbed-ground locations, or in open conifer woods; summer and fall; not common; originally described from the Albany, New York area; precise distribution uncertain (most records come from the northeastern United States and the Midwest), but apparently limited to North America east of the Great Plains. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois and Pennsylvania.

Cap: 1.5-3.5 cm; at first convex with an inrolled margin, becoming flat or centrally depressed, with an even margin; at first with a finely granular, whitish dusting, but soon bald; tacky when fresh; brownish, fading markedly to buff as it dries out; the margin not lined.

Gills: Beginning to run down the stem; nearly distant; short-gills present; creamy.

Stem: 2-5 cm long; 3-8 mm thick; more or less equal, but often compressed with a central vertical groove (and then up to 1 cm wide); moist when fresh; colored like the cap; bald, or with a granular-mealy apex; basal mycelium white.

Flesh: Insubstantial; watery buff; not changing when sliced.

Odor and Taste: Mealy.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on cap surface.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Details: Spores 5.5-7 x 3.5-4.5 m; ellipsoid; apiculate; smooth; weakly to moderately amyloid; hyaline in KOH. Basidia 25-32 x 4-6 m; clavate; 4-sterigmate. Cheilocystidia 26-45 x 1.5-2.5 m; filiform; smooth; hyaline in KOH. Pleurocystidia not found. Pileipellis a cutis of elements 2-5 m wide, with intracellular pigment. Clamp connections present.

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Amanita aprica

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Amanita_aprica.html

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with Douglas-fir and pines (species of Pinus); growing alone or gregariously; often appearing in sun-lit patches (windfall breaks in the canopy, paths, and so on); winter and spring; distribution limited to the Pacific Northwest.

Cap: 5-15 cm; convex, expanding to planoconvex or flat; bright orange-yellow but often fading with age; when young usually covered with tightly adherent, frost-like, whitish universal veil material; the margin faintly lined or not.

Gills: Free from the stem; close or nearly distant; creamy; with frequent short-gills.

Stem: 3.5-9 cm long; up to 3.5 cm thick; equal; whitish; sometimes bruising and discoloring brownish; bald or finely hairy; with a fragile whitish ring that often collapses or may disappear; without a prominently swollen base; with a whitish volva that usually has a free upper edge but may appear as "rings" near the base of the stem or as indistinct, appressed material.

Flesh: White; unchanging when sliced.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 8-13 x 6-8.5 ; ellipsoid; smooth; inamyloid. Basidia 4-spored; infrequently clamped. Pileipellis a cutis of elements 2-7 wide. Lamellar trama bilateral; subhymenium with inflated cells.

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Pleurotus ostreatus

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Pleurotus_ostreatus.html

Ecology: Saprobic; growing in shelf-like clusters on dead logs and living trees (primarily hardwoods, but sometimes on conifers); causing a white rot; late fall (October) through early spring (early April); common; widely distributed in North America. The illustrated and described collections are from California and Illinois.

Cap: 3-15 cm across; broadly convex, becoming flat or shallowly depressed; kidney-shaped to fan-shaped in outline, or nearly round if growing on the tops of logs; somewhat greasy when young and fresh; bald; pale to dark brown; fading to buff; sometimes fading slowly and becoming two-toned; the margin somewhat inrolled when young.

Gills: Running down the stem (or pseudostem); close; short-gills frequent; whitish or with a gray tinge, becoming yellowish in age and sometimes developing brownish edges; often filled with black beetles, in my collecting areas.

Stem: Usually rudimentary and lateral (or nearly absent) when mushrooms are growing from the sides of logs or trees, but sometimes more or less central when growing on the tops of logs or branches; 1-7 x 1-3 cm; whitish; hairy to velvety; tough.

Flesh: Thick; white; unchanging when sliced.

Odor and Taste Odor distinctive but hard to describe (see above); taste mild.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on cap surface.

Spore Print: White to faintly yellowish, or lilac.

Microscopic Features: Spores 7-11 x 2-4 m; cylindric-ellipsoid; smooth; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid. Basidia 4-sterigmate. Hymenial cystidia not found. Pileipellis a partially gelatinized, tangled cutis of elements 2.5-10 m wide, smooth, hyaline to yellowish in KOH, inconspicuously clamped.

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Suillus placidus

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Suillus_placidus.html

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with Pinus strobus (eastern white pine); growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; summer and fall; originally described from Germany (Bonorden 1861), but appearing in Europe only with imported Pinus strobus; fairly widely distributed in northeastern North America, west to the Dakotas and southward with the Appalachian Mountains—corresponding with the natural range of the host tree (see the map on the linked page); reports from China and Japan probably represent a different species. The illustrated and described collection is from Minnesota.

Cap: 4-9 cm; convex becoming broadly convex or nearly flat; sticky when fresh; white when young, darkening slightly with maturity to yellowish white or nearly yellowish; bald or nearly so; in age the gluten sometimes drying brownish.

Pore Surface: White when very young, becoming dull yellow; not bruising; pores becoming angular, about 1-2 per mm; tubes to 1 cm deep.

Stem: 4-9 cm long; 5-12 mm thick; more or less equal above a somewhat tapered base; sticky when fresh; whitish underneath conspicuous, large glandular dots and smears that are initially pinkish but soon darken to reddish brown or brown; without a ring; basal mycelium white.

Flesh: Whitish to yellowish; often staining slowly pinkish to reddish when sliced, especially in the stem base.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: Ammonia on cap surface pink, then black to dull red or purple; on flesh pink to red, becoming purplish or grayish. KOH on cap surface pink, becoming black or purple; on flesh pink.

Spore Print: Cinnamon brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 7-9 x 2-3 m; fusiform; smooth; yellowish in KOH. Basidia about 25 x 4 m; subclavate; 4-sterigmate. Cystidia in bundles; to about 80 x 8 m; clavate to subcapitate; smooth; pinkish red to reddish brown in KOH. Pileipellis an ixocutis.

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Xylaria hypoxylon

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Xylaria_hypoxylon.html

Ecology: Saprobic on the deadwood of hardwoods; growing gregariously to densely gregariously; spring through fall; by strict definitions (see discussion above) distributed in Europe and the West Coast of the United States, but (mis)reported as widely distributed in North America from Canada through Mexico—and in Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The illustrated and described collections are from California.

Anamorphic Fruiting Body: 2-10 cm long; 2-15 mm thick; either narrowly cylindric, with a pointy apex—or cylindric below but branched and flattened above, appearing somewhat like moose antlers, with tapering points on most branches; surface black and slightly fuzzy below, but powdery and gray to nearly white above; extreme apex attenuated, whitish to yellowish, and bald; sometimes with a rooting, black, stem-like structure; interior flesh white and tough.

Teleomorphic Fruiting Body: Shaped like the anamorphic fruiting body; surface black, bald, and finely pimply.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Microscopic Features: Conidia 5-11 x 2-3 m; fusiform; smooth; hyaline in water and in KOH. Spores 13-16 x 5-6 m; subfusoid to subellipsoid; smooth; brown to dark brown in water, with a single, straight germ slit extending the length of the spore. Asci 8-spored.

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