Gills: remote, white, crowded and fairly broad.
Flesh: white, thin, soft.
Spore-print: white.
Spores: very long, ellipsoid with a germ-pore, hyaline under the microscope about 16 × 10 µm (14-17 × 9-12 µm), and becoming reddish brown in solutions containing iodine.
Marginal cystidia: variable, elongate balloon-shaped and hyaline.
Facial cystidia: absent.
Habitat & Distribution: Found from summer until mid-autumn, on the outskirts of copses, in fields, at edges of woodland or in woodland clearings; it is sometimes found in very large rings.
General Information: When this fungus first appears through the soil it resembles a drum-stick with the margin of the unexpanded cap tightly hugging the stem. It is an easily recognised fungus because of its straight and graceful stature with large cap and tall stem. It is one of our best edible fungi and cannot be confused with any other agaric. L. rhacodes (Vittadini) Quélet is not as elegant and has much smaller spores.
Illustrations: F 26a; Hvass 15; LH 125; NB 311; WD 51.
Plate 33. Fleshy fungi: Spores white and borne on gills