Summary:
Inocybe griseolilacina is a member of group around Inocybe cincinnata var. major. It is differentiated from other members by a pale yellowish gray, scaly cap and a fibrillose lilac stem. Other features include brown or lilac hues on the cap, lilac colors often present in the flesh inside the upper stem and on the gills, spermatic odor, and microscopic characters including often subcapitate cystidia. The description derived from Smith except where otherwise indicated.

Cap:
1.5-3cm across, obtusely bell-shaped, becoming expanded and flat or nearly so, "with a rounded umbo, the margin persistently rounded"; yellowish buff on the umbo, elsewhere dingy yellowish gray; densely appressed-fibrillose becoming diffracted-scaly all over with furfuraceous squamules [fine scales] that are appressed to slightly recurved at tips, (Smith), 2-4cm across, conic when young, then convex or almost flat, with or without papillate umbo; "pale brown, often with lilac hue particularly toward margin", center dark ochraceous (if umbonate and without veil layer), or pale lilac-tan (if not umbonate and with veil layer); "outwards radially fibrous, often roughened, becoming excoriate especially in center, cuticle breaking into squarrose patches exposing flesh", margin not rimose [cracked] (or rarely so), "covered with cortina in young specimens", "cuticle frequently not covering flesh at margin", (Cripps), 0.8-3.7cm, convex to more or less flat, not or indistinctly umbonate, margin somewhat inflexed [bent in] when young; brown or grayish brown around center, exceptionally dark brown, outwards paler, near margin grayish buff or isabella-brown, sometimes mixed with violaceous tinges because of underlying flesh; "when young (coarsely) fibrillose-subsquamulose, later breaking up around disc and becoming recurvately squamulose-squarrulose, towards margin coarsely fibrillose", margin sometimes subappendiculate; velipellis [veil layer] absent or inconspicuous, (Kuyper)

Flesh:
about 0.2cm thick off the disc; pallid, unchanging, in stem pallid, (Smith), white in cap, often lilac in stem, rarely with reddish pink hue at stem apex, (Cripps), in upper part of stem reddish to violaceous, more violaceous just above gills, (Kuyper)

Gills:
"adnexed, somewhat angularly sinuate", moderately close, bluntly pointed at margin and subventricose [somewhat wider in middle], 0.2-0.3cm broad; at first pallid with a touch of violaceous, becoming dingy grayish, finally dark olivaceous umber, (Smith), attached, angular emarginate, adnexed, or nearly subdecurrent, narrow or broad (up to 0.5cm); "when young whitish-lilac or lilac (or with yellow tones), then gray-brown, yellow-brown", edges white or colored as faces, (Cripps), narrowly adnate, moderately crowded, 25-45 reaching stem, 1-3 subgills between neighboring gills, gills 0.15-0.5cm broad, ventricose or not; when young violaceous grayish to pale gray without violaceous tinges, then gray-brown, edges whitish; edges fimbriate [fringed], (Kuyper)

Stem:
2.5-4cm x 0.3-0.55cm, equal, "the base rounded-truncate, not at all bulbous", stem solid, round in cross-section, usually flexuous [wavy], solid; pallid grayish buff at base, lilac above "but made to appear considerably duller because of the dense coating of surface fibrils"; densely appressed fibrillose, the fibrils in tiny pointed longitudinally oriented streaks especially in lower part, the top pruinose and almost bald, (Smith), 4-8cm x 0.2-0.6cm, equal, flexuous [wavy], lilac at top or to base, rarely without lilac, remainder pale watery brown; "covered with white longitudinal fibrils, easily removed on handling", (Cripps), 1.4-6.7 x 0.1-0.6cm, (sub)equal, not bulbous, solid; grayish violaceous for the greater part, but sometimes with violaceous tinges only in upper 1/3, near base grayish yellow to grayish-brownish; at extreme top (less than 0.2cm) somewhat hairy, "not pruinose, downwards longitudinally fibrillose", (Kuyper)

Veil:
whitish or lilac cortina ephemeral [fleeting], lilac-tan veil remnants may be present on cap, (Cripps), cortina present when young (Kuyper)

Odor:
spermatic but not strong, (Smith), spermatic, often strong, (Cripps), somewhat Pelargonium-like [geranium-like], especially on drying, but distinctly spermatic when cut, (Kuyper), Pelargonium (geranium) (Buczacki)

Taste:
subspermatic (Kuyper)

Microscopic spores:
spores 8-9(11) x 4.5-5.5 microns, inequilaterally almond-shaped; pleurocystidia 45-67(80) x 14.5-18 microns, ventricose, with pedicel and slender neck, usually thick-walled, "cheilocystidia of two kinds, some like the pleurocystidia in size and shape, the majority clavate to ovoid, thin-walled", 20-30 x 11-13.5 microns, densely clustered along gill edge, (Smith), |spores (8.5)9-10 x 5.5-6.5 microns, somewhat almond-shaped, smooth, with small apiculus and conic apex, walls thickened; basidia 4-spored, 30-32 x 8-10 microns, clavate; pleurocystidia numerous, 50-80 x 8-14 microns, "variable in shape, subcapitate, less frequently utriform, fusiform, or capitate, often with thin pedicel, without crystals at apex", walls pale, 1-2 microns thick, cheilocystidia similar to pleurocystidia, paracystidia 7-10 x 5-7 microns, "narrowly clavate, thin-walled"; cap cuticle of parallel hyphae, 6-9(12) microns wide, slightly swollen, encrusted; caulocystidia absent; clamp connections present on all tissues, (Cripps), |spores (8.0)8.5-10.5(11.0) x 5.0-6.5 microns, smooth, regular to somewhat almond-shaped, with subconic apex; basidia 4-spored, 26-33 x 8-10 microns; pleurocystidia frequent, (49)50-74(77) x (11)12-18(19) microns, "utriform, fusiform to sublageniform, often indistinctly subcapitate", thick-walled, walls up to 2.0 microns thick and almost colorless to very pale yellow, slightly crystalliferous at apex, cheilocystidia infrequent, similar to pleurocystidia, paracystidia abundant, (slenderly) clavate, colorless, thin-walled; caulocystidia absent but "with some rather undifferentiated caulocystidioid hairs" less than 0.2cm from top, (Kuyper)

Spore deposit:
brown (Cripps), dark brown (Buczacki)

Notes:
Inocybe griseolilacina is found at least in WA, (Smith(9)), CA (Desjardin), and MT (Cripps(1), who says it was previously reported from MI and Europe). There are collections from BC at the University of British Columbia, and collections from WA, OR, ID, and MI at the University of Washington. A collection from TN was used in Kropp(2). Kuyper(1) examined collections from Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, and Switzerland.

EDIBILITY

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Inocybe personata Kuehner