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Species Information
Summary: Features include 1) small size, 2) a hygrophanous, viscid, peelable, brownish cap, 3) the absence of a ring on the stem, 4) growth on dung and manure, 5) a purple-brown to nearly black spore deposit, and 6) spores that may look somewhat hexagonal to rhomboid in front view.
There are collections from BC at the University of British Columbia. There are collections at the University of Washington from WA, OR, and CO. Collections from ID are at the College of Idaho and at Boise State University. Collections were examined from OR, QC, AL, CA, HI, MA, MO, MT, Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom (England), China, Japan, Australia, and Papua New Guinea, and it has been reported from Pakistan, India, and Africa, (Guzman(1)).
Gills: "adnate to slightly decurrent, fairly well-spaced"; grayish brown becoming deep purple-brown or black, (Arora), broadly adnate to somewhat subdecurrent; pale brownish to purplish brown and finally brown-violaceous, somewhat mottled, with whitish edges; edges slightly fimbriate [fringed], (Guzman(1)), adnate, subdistant, broad; grayish brown at first, then deep purple brown to black, (Stamets)
Stem: 1-4cm x 0.1-0.4cm, more or less equal; pallid to yellowish or brown, darkening when old but not bruising blue; fibrillose, (Arora), (1.5)2.5-4(5)cm x (0.1)0.2-0.4cm, equal or slightly narrowed in upper part or subbulbous [somewhat bulbous], straight or sometimes curved, hollow; whitish to brownish but darker in lower part; pruinose at top, floccose fibrillose over lower part, but bald when mature, (Guzman(1)), 2-6cm x 0.1-0.3cm, nearly equal; yellow to yellowish brown, sometimes bruising bluish in mycelium; dry, with scattered fibrils, (Stamets)
Veil: absent or rudimentary and evanescent [fleeting], (Arora), poorly developed, only as arachnoid [cobwebby] or floccose white fibrils or patches in young specimens, no ring, (Guzman(1)), partial veil thin to absent, (Stamets)
Taste: slightly fungus-like (Guzman(1)), of fresh meal (Miller)
Microscopic spores: spores 11-14 x 6.5-8.5 microns, elliptic, smooth; chrysocystidia absent on gills, (Arora), spores (9)10-12(14) x (6)7-9 x 6-7.1 microns, subhexagonal [somewhat hexagonal] in face view, subelliptic [somewhat elliptic] in side view, thick-walled (up to 1 micron), pale to dark yellowish brown, with broad flat germ pore; basidia 4-spored, 25-34 x 9-12 microns, "ventricose-subcylindric or subpyriform, with a slight medial constriction", colorless; pleurocystidia "absent or when present very rare and similar to cheilocystidia" or slightly broader (8-10 microns) with a more robust neck (up to 5 microns wide), cheilocystidia abundant, sometimes forming a sterile band, 22-35(44) x (5)7.5-8.5 microns, colorless, "fusoid-ventricose or lageniform, with short or long neck" 2-4 microns wide; clamp connections present, (Guzman(1)), spores 11-15 x 6.5-9 microns (Stamets), spores 10.4-14.2 x 6.1-8 x 7.6-9.2 microns, "hexagonal to rhomboid in frontal view", elliptic in lateral view, (Breitenbach)
Spore deposit: purplish brown to nearly black, (Arora), blackish violaceous brown, (Guzman(1)), dark purplish brown (Stamets)
Habitat / Range
single or in small colonies "on dung and manure (especially cow patties)", (Arora), scattered to gregarious in dense groups, rarely single, on dung (cow, horse, donkey, sheep, rabbits, and probably other animals), rarely on rich soil, (Guzman(1)), usually on cow or horse dung in spring, summer, or fall, (Stamets), fall to winter (Buczacki)
Similar Species
Deconica merdaria has a well-formed ring and an appendiculate cap margin, whereas D. coprophila lacks a ring and has a poorly developed veil, (Guzman(4)). D. merdaria differs only by a more olive-brown to olive-yellow cap and by the presence of a ring or at least distinct veil remnants even when mature, (Breitenbach(4)). Deconica subcoprophila has larger spores that are not hexagonal. Deconica argentina has larger spores (Guzman). Protostropharia semiglobata also occurs on dung, has a yellow, viscid cap, a yellowish, viscid stem, a persistent ring, and much larger spores, (Miller).
generally regarded as harmless, some strains with small amount psilocybin, (Arora), no hallucinogenic properties but has psilocybin according to a study by Leslie and Repke, but some specimens deposited by Leslie and Repke are of mixed genera, (Guzman(1)), does not produce psilocybin or psilocyn (conclusion of Stamets)
