Summary:
Distinguishing features of the Inocybe lanuginosa group as described by Matheny and Kropp are the brown squarrose to squamulose cap, young gills that are pallid and become brown with age, the brown squamulose, floccose to woolly-fibrillose stem, occurrence on soil, among Sphagnum or on rotten wood under members of Pinaceae in the northern hemisphere, and nodulose spores, (Matheny(1)). Members of the Inocybe lanuginosa group in the Pacific Northwest are Inocybe lanuginosa, I. leptophylla, and I. stellatospora (see separate descriptions and SIMILAR). Features of Inocybe lanuginosa in particular include a hispid-squarrose cap that is dark brown, dry, and generally not cracked, narrowly adnate to notched, pallid to brown gills with pallid fringed edges, a stem that is woolly-fibrillose to floccose or appressed-(sub)squamulose, a mild odor, growth on rotten wood or uncommonly on the ground, nodulose spores and small, obovate (pyriform) to ovate pleurocystidia. The photographs presented here belong at least to the Inocybe lanuginosa group. Inocybe lanuginosa sensu Moser, Stangl is not this species, but a synonym of Inocybe stellatospora (Peck) Massee. The description is derived from Matheny(1) except where otherwise specified. Both Inocybe lanuginosa and Inocybe leptophylla are fairly common in the Pacific Northwest, "with the former occurring more frequently west of the Cascade crest and the latter more frequently on the east side", (Trudell(4)).

Cap:
1-3.5cm across, conic, obtusely conic to convex, flat with age, usually with a low, obtuse umbo when flat, margin incurved to decurved [downcurved]; center dark brown, towards the margin brown or "Prout's brown" to "sepia"; "dry, disc with small, crowded, hispid squarrae" [bristle-like, upright to upcurved pointed scales], squamulose [finely scaly] or recurved-squamulose [upcurved scaly] toward the margin, tearing with age but not rimose [not cracking], neither shaggy nor revealing pallid ground color

Flesh:
up to 0.3cm thick, whitish, unchanging where bruised, in stem pallid to dingy

Gills:
close, adnate to uncinate, with several tiers of subgills, up to 0.3cm broad, even to (sub)ventricose; pallid at first becoming brown (brownish orange, light brown to brown); edges pallid, fimbriate [fringed]

Stem:
2-4.5cm x 0.3-0.7cm, equal to slightly widened at base, round in cross-section, solid at first but may become hollow when old; extreme apex pallid, lower half colored as cap; dry, extreme apex pruinose, lower half woolly-fibrillose or floccose to appressed-(sub)squamulose, less so towards top, extreme base at times with white mycelium

Veil:
cortina fugacious [fleeting] (Matheny), cobwebby, pallid, evanescent [fleeting], (Arora)

Odor:
not remarkable

Taste:
not remarkable or slightly acidulous

Microscopic spores:
spores 8-10.5(11) x (5)5.5-7.5(8) microns, distinctly nodulose, outline often subelliptic, typically with (8)9-13(14) nodules; basidia 4-spored, (14)19-30(34) microns, clavate to cylindric-clavate, colorless or nearly so; pleurocystidia frequent to infrequent, (26)29-46(48) microns, "obovate, pyriform to broadly clavate, less often elliptic or utriform, walls thin to slightly thickened", less than 2 microns thick, colorless, apices bearing crystals, basal pedicel brief, cheilocystidia abundant, (17)22-43(56) x (10)11-20(22) microns, "similar to pleurocystidia though somewhat shorter, also some ventricose to utriform", "paracystidia broadly clavate, pyriform to subelliptic, thin-walled", colorless; gill trama "regular, pale yellowish brown in mass, hyphae cylindric to inflated", up to 28 microns wide; cap cuticle on disc a trichoderm of russet to rust-brown, thick-walled (up to 1.0 micron thick) cylindric to swollen hyphae, 10-23 microns wide, cap tramal hyphae inflated, up to 25 microns wide; caulocystidia present at (extreme) apex, "generally utriform, obovate to subcylindric", colorless to pale brown, usually thin-walled, apices bearing crystals or not, "well-rounded to subcapitate, in dense clusters"; clamp connections frequent

Spore deposit:
brown, "ochraceous-buff"

Notes:
Inocybe lanuginosa has been found in BC, WA, OR, ID, AB, NB, NS, ON, QC, AK, CA, IL, MI, MN, MT, NH, NY, NC, TN, VT, WY, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland, (Matheny).

EDIBILITY

unknown (Arora)

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Inocybe nodulospora (Peck) Sacc.
Inocybe ovatocystis Boursier & Kuehner