F. SPECIALIZED HABITATS

(i) Fungi of dung and straw heaps

Bolbitius vitellinus (Fries) Fries Yellow cow-pat toadstool

Cap: width 20-40 mm. Stem: width 2-5 mm; length 30-60 mm.

Description:

Cap: chrome-yellow or lemon-yellow when young, paling with age at margin to become cinnamon-buff, bell-shaped but rapidly expanding to become plane or slightly umbonate, smooth, viscid but soon drying; margin striate then radially grooved, often split and the whole cap soon collapsing.

Stem: slender, whitish, cream colour to pale yellow, at apex covered in small, white floccose scales but downy at the base, fragile and soon collapsing.

Gills: adnexed or free, cinnamon-buff, thin and crowded.

Flesh: yellowish, very thin and lacking distinct smell.

Spore print: rust-brown.