Flesh: white with smell of newly dug potatoes, strong when fresh.
Spore-print: clay-colour.
Spores: medium sized, ellipsoid or slightly French-bean-shaped, smooth, yellow-brown under the microscope and 9-11 × 4-5 µm in size.
Marginal and facial cystidia: flask- to spindle-shaped with distinctly thickened walls and frequently ornamented with crystals apically.
Habitat & Distribution: Common in troops in woodland clearings, by pathsides or on the edges of ditches bordering woods.
General Information: This fungus is easily recognised by the very pale uniform colour, the colour of the spore-print, silky umbonate cap and small size. The cortina connects the cap-margin and the stem and consists of a cobwebby structure which collapses at maturity.
A violet coloured variety, var. lilacina Gillet is frequently found, in fact, even accompanying var. geophylla; it differs only in the lilac-colour of the cap and stem. I. geophylla is a member of the very large genus Inocybe, further members of which will be dealt with later (see [p. 238]).
The genus is well defined with dull-yellow spore-print, well differentiated sterile cells on the gill-edge (and often on the gill-face) and the cobweb-like veil, or cortina, stretching from the cap-margin to the stem and easily observed in young specimens. The genus is split into three distinct groups: those with smooth spores, those with nodulose spores and those with subglobose spores ornamented with long projections. I. geophylla is included in the first group. The group which includes the nodulose-spored members has been elevated to the rank of genus by some authors, i.e. Astrosporina—a name referring to the spore-shape eg., I. asterospora.
Illustrations: F 13a (too blue); LH 155; NB 1395; WD 654.
Plate 21. Fleshy fungi: Spores dull brown and borne on gills