Echinoderma asperulum

Cap

(1)2-4.5 cm diam., campanulate to convex then sub-spreading to spreading-obtuse, dry, covered with small granular scales rather pointed and erect, sometimes almost concentric-rimose, dark brown, ochraceous brown to olive brown, detersiles, more numerous in the center, absent or few at the margin at maturity

Gills

free, moderately narrow to moderately broad, sometimes forked near the base and arranged in pairs, close together, white to yellowish, with finely eroded edges

Stem

1.5-6 x 0.4-0.6 cm, equal, broadened towards the base and bulbous-rounded, stuffed then hollow, covered with a loose, silky or fibrous veil, which collapses at the cap and ends in a ring evanescent at first, then glabrous to fibrillose above the annuliform zone, with fine brown scales below, with filaments very tangled at the base and connected to the substratum

Partial veil

fibrillose-silky, sometimes copious, white, fleeting, leaving a dense cortiniform area on the foot

Flesh

thin, quite fragile, scissile, white

Smell and flavor

indistinct odor and flavor

Spore

white

basidia

with 4 slender sterigmata

Spores

ellipsoid to oblong, smooth, hyaline, dextrinoid, 3.5-4(5) x 2-3.5 µm, average 4 x 2.5 µm

Hymenial cystids

absent

Pileipellis

formed of tangled hyphae

Mode of growth

gregarious

Ecology

saprotrophic
on ground and among debris in deciduous or mixed forests

Period

July to September

Frequency

rare

Edibility

toxic

Remarks

This lepiote is characterized by its tiny basidiomes, its brownish cap, with a cuticle in two layers, the first being formed of small fleeting and detertile granular scales, the absence of a ring and its tiny spores, of little variable size.
It is difficult to distinguish from a small E asperum, except by its small spores.
Lepiota boudieri and Lepiota umbrosa differ in their cap with numerous scales at the margin, not detersiles.