Plants and animals of Pointfield

Dark brown cap to 60 mm, drying paler; flat with small umbo; smooth, dry surface. Gills emarginate; densely packed in 3 cycles; pure white. Stem brown with a slightly blue sheen, darkening towards base; widest at top and narrowing towards base; 60 x 7 mm; pruinose near cap.

Spore print cream. Spores strongly amyloid; ellipsoidal, without germ pore and obviously granular; unsually containing large oil droplet; 6.0-7.0 x 3.9-4.3 um, mean = 6.5 x 4.1 um, N = 18; Q = 1.46-1.80, mean = 1.60. Basidia 4-spored. Cheilocystidia moderately common, tall and cylindrical, single-celled without septum usually ending in a crown of downward-pointing crystals. Pleurocystidia similar. Identified as M. polioleuca rather than M. cognata, which also has single-celled, crystal-bearing cystidia because it has more or less tapering cheilocystidia and slightly smaller spores, and its gills remain white.

In grass around Victoria plum tree and damson tree in grass meadow (October); in grass at edge of leylandi cypress canopy in front garden (November).