Beef Stropharia (Deconica coprophila)
Systematics:
- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Branch: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Agaricomycetidae (Agaricomycete)
- Order: Agaricales (Agaric or Lamellar)
- Family: Strophariaceae (Strophariaceae)
- Genus: Deconica (Deconica)
- Species: Deconica coprophila (Stropharia shit (Kakashkina bald head))
Synonyms:
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Kakashkin bald head
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Stropharia coprophila
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Psilocybe coprophila
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Agaricus coprophilus
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Psilocybe coprophila
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Geophila coprophila
Description
Hat with a diameter of 6 – 25 mm, first hemispherical, sometimes with a small depression, with age becomes convex. The edge is first turned inward, then gradually unfolds and becomes flat, in young mushrooms with the remains of a private bedspread in the form of white scales and uneven white rims. Light yellow tan to dark reddish brown, lighter and faded with age. Hygrophanic surface, dry or sticky, in wet weather shiny, young fungi radially radiant due to translucent records. The pulp is thin, one color with a hat, when damaged, the color does not change. Leg 25 – 75 mm length and about 3 mm in diameter, straight or slightly curved in fibrous, often covered with whitish young fungi flakes, occasionally with the remains of a private bedspread in the zone of the ring, but more often without them. Color from whitish to tan. The plates are grown, relatively wide, not very frequent, gray-brown with a white edge, with age becoming dark red-brown to almost black. Spore purplish brown powder, spores smooth, ellipsoidal, 11-14 x 7-9 µm.
Ecology
Saprotroph. It usually grows on manure (where it comes from name), singly or in groups, is rare enough (less commonly than the similar Psilocybe semilanceata). Active period growth after rains, from mid-August to the onset of cold weather, in mild climate until mid-December.
Similar views:
Unlike many members of the genus Psilocybe, stropharia shit does not turn blue when damaged. Usually this mushroom is confused with hemispherical stropharia (Stropharia semiglobata), which also grows on manure, but differs in the mucous stem, more yellowish color and absence – even in young mushrooms – of radial banding of the edge of the cap (i.e., the plates never shine through). The representatives of the genus Panaeolus have a dry hat and spotty records.
Edibility
There is no data on edibility.
Other
According to some sources, the fungus is not hallucinogenic (in it neither psilocin nor psilocybin was detected).
