Summary:
Features include 1) small size, 2) a whitish cap that becomes gray with scattered white patches, 3) deliquescing gills, 4) a whitish stem with a somewhat marginate bulb, the stem becoming brownish basally, and 5) growth on herbaceous material in wetland habitat. Coprinopsis kubickae has been in Section Herbicolae along with C. phaeosporus and C. psychromorbidus (at least some of this section included by Moser(1) in Section Coprinus). It is likely that there are other Pacific Northwest species in Section Herbicolae which has not been well studied in the region. Coprinopsis kubickae is the more recently published name based on microscopic evidence (Redhead(49)). The description is derived from Redhead(12) except where noted.

Cap:
0.4-1.2cm across, conic to hemispheric, becoming broadly parabolically conic to somewhat bell-shaped, expanding to flat or cyathiform [uplifted]; whitish initially, sometimes slightly brownish on disc, pale drab gray to drab gray when expanded with scattered white patches; dry, initially opaque, becoming translucent, obscurely plicate-striate [pleated-striate], edges uneven becoming split and deliquescing

Gills:
"ascending adnate to adnexed, crowded, moderately sized, slightly thickened marginally", subgills in 0-1 tiers; whitish becoming fuscous black and deliquescing

Stem:
1.2-2cm x 0.05-0.08cm, hollow, cartilaginous, with a swollen submarginate base; whitish becoming brownish basally; dry, sparsely fibrillose powdered on upper half, base velvety

Odor:
not distinctive

Microscopic spores:
spores 10-12 x 8-9.2 microns, fuscous black in mass, somewhat broadly oval, "tending to be greatly swollen abaxially and less so in the suprahilar region, and with a prominent defined conical apex, rarely with a secondary swelling bearing a second germ pore", walls thickened, smooth, grayish to blackish in 2% KOH, sienna in Melzer''s reagent, germ pore apical, nearly colorless, with hemispheric cap, apiculus prominent; basidia 4-spored, 21-30 x 10-12 microns, prominently projecting to different levels at maturity, clavate to obpyriform with a long or short narrow pedicel, clamp connection at base; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia similar, abundant, 65-110 x 20-27 microns, prominently projecting, narrowly to broadly fusiform to ventricose; cap cuticle hyphae moniliform, repent, composed of elliptic to cigar-shaped, thin-walled cells 8-16 microns wide connected by refractive septa, (Redhead(12)), spores 10-13 x 8-10 microns, round to heart-shaped, inequilateral, eccentric apiculus and large germ pore, (Pilat)

Spore deposit:
brown-black (Pilat)

Notes:
Coprinus kubickae has been found at least in BC, WA, and SK, (Redhead(13)), and Europe including Czechoslovakia.

EDIBILITY

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Coprinus amphibius Anastasiou
Coprinus kubickae Pilat & Svrcek Ceska