Marginal and facial cystidia: absent.
Habitat & Distribution: Frequently found amongst grass on heaths, in hill-pastures and in woodlands from summer to autumn.
General Information: This fungus is recognised by the gill-attachment and the powdery-scurfy cap formed by the breaking up of an enveloping veil composed of thick-walled, rounded cells, similar to those on the surface of the stem.
This fungus was formerly placed in the genus Lepiota because of the ring but the veil in Cystoderma amianthinum is formed in quite a different way to the ring in the true parasol mushrooms. The gills are also adnate and not free as in the true species of Lepiota (see [p. 112]). C. carcharias (Secretan) Fayod is found under similar conditions, but is white or flesh-coloured. C. cinnabarinum (Secretan) Fayod is also found in short grass and moss, but has a cinnabar-red, floccose cap and C. granulosum (Fries) Fayod is yellowish brown with non-amyloid spores and adnexed gills.
Many authorities prefer to connect this small group of closely related species more to members of the Tricholomataceae (i.e. the family which contains the Wood Blewits ([p. 131]), Mycena ([p. 68], etc.) than to the parasol mushrooms—Lepiota ([p. 112]).
Illustrations: Hvass 23; LH 129; NB 1037; WD 84.
Plate 29. Fleshy fungi: Spores white and borne on gills
![[Larger illustration]](#467779198995390083_illo105lg.png.id-1084709226856242189.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}