Lepiota magnispora
Mycologia 4: 237. 1912.
Common Name: none
Synonym: Lepiota ventriosospora Reid
Misapplied name: Lepiota clypeolaria (Bull.) Quél.
Cap 3-7 cm broad, egg-shaped, then campanulate, finally convex to nearly plane with a low umbo; surface dry, with buff-yellow to brownish scales shading to a smooth, brown disc; margin ragged with yellowish veil fragments; flesh thin, white to yellowish; odor and taste not distinctive.
Gills free, close, narrow, white, cream-colored in age.
Stipe fragile, 5-13 cm tall, 0.3-0.8 cm thick, more or less equal, with coarse, yellowish-buff, shaggy, scales below the ring, faintly fibrillose, above; veil with floccose patches, leaving fragments on the cap margin and forming an evanescent, superior ring.
Spores 17-22.5 x 4-5.5 µm, dextrinoid, smooth, fusiform. Spore print white.
Scattered to grouped under hardwoods & conifers; fruiting from late fall to mid-winter.
Unknown, but to be avoided. A number of small Lepiotas are known to contain the same type toxins as in Amanita phalloides, the death cap.
Lepiota magnispora is a beautiful woodland species easily recognized by its coarsely scaled, yellowish-brown cap, appendiculate margin, shaggy stipe, free gills and white spore print. Unlike many Lepiotas, the partial veil does not form a well developed annulus.
For years this species was misidentified locally as Lepiota clypeolaria. The two species are similar macroscopically, with L. magnispora having a darker disk to the pileus. They have distinct microscopic features.
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