Summary:
Features in the Smith(2) description include 1) a hygrophanous, non-viscid, ochraceous tawny, striate cap, 2) pallid brown gills, 3) submembranous to fibrillose ring on stem that often disappears, 4) stem pruinose and paler than cap in upper part, browner downward to reddish brown to bister brown base, with thin coating of pallid fibrils in lower part of stem, 5) farinaceous odor, 6) growth on conifer wood, and 7) ovate, warty-wrinkled spores. It should be considered deadly poisonous. |Gulden(1) synonymized the following group of species with Galerina marginata (Batsch) Kuehner: Galerina autumnalis (Peck) A.H. Sm. & Singer, Galerina unicolor (Vahl) Singer, Galerina venenata A.H. Sm., and Galerina oregonensis A.H. Sm. | Sequences of collections labeled G. marginata, G. venenata, G. cinnamomea and G. unicolor from around the world (mostly Europe) all are within about 1% of each other, from a half a dozen to a couple of dozen of each, but differences do not show any consistent patterns indicating that different species are involved, (D. Miller, pers. comm.). Galerina autumnalis from eastern North American appears to have a different sequence, but that sequence has not been confirmed from the Pacific Northwest, (D. Miller, pers. comm.). |Landry(1) gave evidence to show that amatoxin production in British Columbia Galerina was found in two species, Galerina venenata and Galerina castaneipes. These two along with two other reportedly toxic species (Galerina aff. marginata and Galerina sulciceps) and seven species whose toxin production states remains unknown, form a clade referred to as the Galerina marginata complex, (Landry).

Cap:
1.7-4cm across, obtuse to convex to flat, may be slightly umbonate, margin incurved at first; hygrophanous, "pale to dark ochraceous tawny over disc, yellow (ochraceous) on margin at least when young, fading to dull tan"; moist but not viscid, bald, margin usually translucent-striate when moist, (Smith), 1.5-4cm across, convex to flat, pale ocher, ocher-brown, yellow-brown; margin striate, (Moser), up to 7cm across, hygrophanous, russet brown then yellowish ochraceous; damp or dry, margin bald, (Courtecuisse)

Flesh:
thin, pliant; "pale brownish ochraceous to nearly white", in base of stem reddish brown to bister, (Smith)

Gills:
broadly adnate to subdecurrent, typically crowded and narrow; pallid brown becoming tawny; edges even but whitish at times, (Smith), thin, crowded, (Moser), adnate to subdecurrent, narrow; "pale brownish to ochraceous somewhat rusty brown", edge frosted whitish, (Courtecuisse)

Stem:
(2)3-6cm x (0.2)0.3-0.9cm, equal to slightly widened downward, finally hollow; paler than cap in upper part, browner downward to reddish brown to bister brown base; pruinose in upper part, lower part with a thin coating of pallid fibrils which eventually disappears and does not leave squamules [fine scales] as it breaks up; the submembranous to fibrillose ring often disappears, (Smith), 2-6cm x 0.2-0.9cm, ocher to honey, below darker brown, (Moser), up to 7cm tall and 1cm wide, pale ocher to gray brown, or dull dark brown below, (Courtecuisse)

Veil:
more or less median to superior, submembranous to fibrillose ring that soon collapses on stem and often disappears, (Smith), partial veil more cortinate as opposed to membranous for G. autumnalis (Stamets), ring brownish soon appressed (Courtecuisse)

Odor:
slightly to strongly farinaceous, (Smith), floury (Moser), mealy (Courtecuisse)

Taste:
slightly to strongly farinaceous [but avoid tasting because it is poisonous], (Smith), floury (Moser), mealy (Courtecuisse)

Microscopic spores:
spores 8-10 x 5-6 microns, rarely 11-15 x 6.5-7.5, ovate in face view, slightly inequilateral in side view, warty-rugulose [warty-wrinkled] "and with a smooth suprahilar depression, tawny or darker rusty brown as revived in KOH, with apical callus"; basidia 4-spored, 21-29 x 5-8.4 microns, "rarely with a very few 2-spored ones", "subcylindric when sporulating but with slightly tapered base"; pleurocystidia relatively few, (26)46-60(75) x (7)9-12(16) microns, fusoid-ventricose with wavy necks and obtuse to subacute apices (3-6 microns wide near apex), thin-walled, colorless in KOH, cheilocystidia fairly abundant, similar in shape but often smaller, no clavate or mucronate cells present; gill trama "parallel, the hyphae with a pale yellow incrusting pigment in KOH"; cap trama "homogeneous, the hyphae with a pale ochraceous incrusting pigment, no pellicle differentiated"; clamp connections present, (Smith), spores 8-10.5(15) x 5-6(7.5) microns, egg-shaped, almond-shaped, warty, (Moser)

Spore deposit:
red-brown (Buczacki)

Notes:
Galerina marginata is found at least in WA, elsewhere in North America, Europe, Japan, and continental Asia, (Smith). It is reported from BC in Redhead(5) and there is a collection from BC at Pacific Forestry Centre in Victoria. Collections from OR and CA are at Oregon State University.

EDIBILITY

deadly poisonous (Stamets), with alpha-amanitin (Moser), phalloidin syndrome (Courtecuisse)