Psilocybe micropora Noordel. & Verduin, Persoonia 17: 257. 1999

macroscopy:

Pileus 5-16 mm, conico-convex soon plano-convex with low umbo, with deflexed then straight margin, hygrophanous, when moist slightly translucently striate at margin only, red brown (Mu. 5 YR 3/2-4/3-4), only slightly paler at margin, pallescent on drying; dry, not viscid; pellicle not peeling. Veil present in form of fine fibrillose-arachnoid covering of marginal zone of pileus and loose fibrils on lower part of stipe. Lamellae, L = 20-26, l= 5-7, moderately distant, broadly adnate rarely somewhat decurrent, triangular then segmentiform, red brown (7.5 YR - 5 YR 4/4), with subentire, concolorous with slightly paler edge. Stipe 10-25 x 1-2 mm, cylindrical to flexuous, often with broadened base, yellow-brown or yellow red at apex, red brown below (7.5 YR 7/6 - 4/4, 5 YR 4/4), with finely pruinose apex , downwards loosely fibrillose. Taste mild. Smell indistinct. Spore print dark blackish-brown.

microscopy:

Spores 5.5-7.5(-8.0) x 4.5-6.0 x 4.0-5.5 µm, ovoid to almost mitriform in frontal view, Q = 1.3-1.6, Qav = 1.4, ellipsoid-oblong to amygdaliform in side-view Q = 1.15-1.5, Qav = 1/4, with slightly thickened, deep brown wall, with very small apical germ pore, often difficult to see. Basidia 15-24 x 6.0-9.0 µm, 4-spored, clamped. Lamella edge sterile. Cheilocystidia 17.5 x 23 x 4.5-6.0 µm, lageniform with slender, 1.5-2.5 µm wide neck, lageniform, thin-walled. Pileipellis a 10-35 µm thick cutis of cylindrical, 2.0-4.0 µm wide hyphae, well differentiated from subpellis composed of very large, inflated elements, 40-95 x 7.0-18 µm, with yellow-brown, membranal and coarsely incrusting pigment, gradually passing into pileitrama. Stipitipellis a cutis of cylindrical hyphae, elements 10-50(-90) x 2.0-6.0 µm wide. Caulocystidia 11-30 x 2.0-6.0, cylindrical to irregularly clavate, at apex of stipe only. Clamp-connections present.

ecology:

Saprotrophic, in groups, terrestrial, on (Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus) and among moss (R. squarrosus and Brachythecium rutabulum) in mossy lawn on sandy-peaty soil.

distribution:

Only known from the type-locality (Wassenaar, Estate Zuidwijck) in the Netherlands and one in Sweden. June.

comment:

Psilocybe micropora is rather similar to Ps. montana, but clearly differs by the rather small spores without or with poorly visible germ pore.