Crucial identifying features of this mushroom include:

Growth on wood, often in clusters;

Rusty brown spore print (see bottom illustration);

Relatively small size;

A thin ring or ring zone, which may disappear;

Brown to tawny cap that may fade in age.

Galerina marginata contains amatoxins--the same poisons found in Amanita phalloides, the Death Cap. See Mushroom Toxins for more information.

Galerina marginata can be found just about any time during the year, though it is more prevalent in the fall. In central Illinois I frequently find it in spring, while hunting for morels.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic on the rotting wood of fallen hardwoods and conifers; growing gregariously, or in clusters (rarely alone); widely distributed; most frequent in fall, but often encountered in spring--and not infrequently found in summer and winter.

Cap: 1-4 cm; convex or nearly flat, sometimes slightly bell-shaped; slimy when fresh or wet, otherwise sticky or dry; smooth; brown to tawny brown, sometimes fading to yellowish or tan; the margin finely lined (when fresh and moist).

Gills: Attached to the stem or even running slightly down it--but sometimes pulling away from the stem in age; close; yellowish at first, eventually becoming rusty brown or brownish as the spores mature; not bruising.

Stem: 2-10 cm long; 3-6 mm thick; more or less equal; typically curving when growing in clusters; dry; hollow; finely shaggy below; when young with a whitish partial veil covering the gills--later with a ring that is often fragile and collapsed, or with a ring zone (though specimens are sometimes found in which all evidence of the partial veil has disappeared); the ring white at first but soon dusted with rusty brown spores; whitish, darkening below in age; sometimes with whitish mycelial threads.

Flesh: Insubstantial; watery brown.

Odor: Mild or slightly mealy (crush the flesh between your fingers).

Spore Print: Rusty brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 8-11 x 5-6.5 µ; roughened or wrinkled; elliptical.

REFERENCES: (Batsch, 1789) Kühner, 1935. (G. autumnalis: Smith & Singer, 1964; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1979; Arora, 1986; Phillips, 1991/2005; Lincoff, 1992; G. marginata: Gulden, Dunham & Stockman, 2001.) Herb. Kuo 05149501, 05249701, 03120301, 03120302.