Summary: Pseudosperma spurium is a robust species with a conic appressed-fibrillose cap that is light tan to reddish tan or yellow-brown and tends to crack when mature; notched close gills with whitish edges; an equal, longitudinally striate stem that is white to brown; a spermatic odor; and microscopic characters including smooth spores and clavate to ellipsoid cheilocystidia. The description here is derived from Kropp(4).
Gills: notched, 0.3-0.7cm broad, close; pale yellow-brown when young becoming dull yellow-brown when mature with whitish edges
Stem: 4-8cm x 1-1.8cm, "equal, solid, occasionally joined at the base"; white when young becoming light brown when mature with a pallid or pale yellow-brown to yellow-brown apex, "sometimes with a white base"; longitudinally striate
Odor: spermatic
Microscopic spores: spores 8.0-11.5 x 4.5-6 microns, elliptic to phaseoliform [bean-shaped], smooth; basidia 4-spored or 2-spored, 31-38 x 9-11 microns, clavate; pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia numerous, 23-35 x 13-25 microns, varying in size, broadly clavate to ellipsoid, thin-walled; clamp connections present
Spore deposit: presumably a shade of brown
Notes: Kropp(4) examined Utah collections. It is known also from BC (as well as Europe), but the BC samples were identified from sequences obtained during soil sampling rather than from fruiting bodies.
EDIBILITY
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Pseudosperma squamatum has broader spores which are mostly elliptic (as opposed to predominantly phaseoliform) (Kropp(4)).
Habitat
in Utah fruiting with mixed Populus tremuloides (Quaking Aspen) and conifers in montane areas in summer
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names: Inocybe spuria Jacobsson & Larsson