Summary:
Features of Inocybe subdestricta include 1) an umbonate, dry, appressed-fibrillose cap that is unicolorous dark brown to rufous-brown, 2) adnexed or notched, close, whitish gills that become pale-brownish ashy with white fringed edges, 3) a more or less equal stem that is pinkish pallid tinged rufous, pruinose at the top and slightly to densely fibrillose in the lower part, 4) spermatic odor, 5) smooth spores, 6) thick-walled pleurocystidia and 7) other microscopic characters. Inocybe subdestricta is possibly a synonym of Inocybe nitidiuscula (Britzelm.) Sacc.

Cap:
2-4cm across, subconic, conic - bell-shaped, "then expanded-umbonate, at length depressed around the darker, abrupt umbo"; dark-brown to rufous brown, the umbo dark chestnut or umber; "dry, innately fibrillose at first, at length lacerate-scaly" or rimose [cracked] or both, (Kauffman), 2-2.5cm across, bell-shaped becoming expanded and umbonate; umbrinous ("Saccardo's umber" at center, "tawny olive" at margin); appressed-fibrillose, subshining [somewhat shining], (Grund), "unicolorous, dark brown, rufous to umbrinous, margin sometimes tawny olive", (Nishida(2))

Flesh:
in cap whitish, in stem white (Kauffman), firm; pallid, unchanging on exposure, (Grund)

Gills:
"sinuate-adnexed, or deeply emarginate, with a slight decurrent tooth", close, medium-broad, ventricose; whitish, then pale-brownish-ashy, the edges white-fimbriate [white-fringed], (Kauffman), adnate, moderately close, ventricose, moderately broad (0.3cm); pallid at first, becoming dingy umbrinous with white edges, (Grund)

Stem:
2.5-5cm x 0.25-0.5cm, "equal, scarcely subbulbous", solid; pallid, tinged rufous; varying flocculose-fibrillose to glabrescent [becoming bald], pruinose at apex, (Kauffman), 2.5-3cm x 0.4-0.5cm, equal, round in cross-section, base rounded to slightly incrassate [thickened], solid; pale incarnate ("light pinkish cinnamon"); pruinose at top, slightly to rather densely fibrillose in lower part, (Grund), flesh-pink or rosy pink, at least at the top, (Stuntz)

Veil:
no ring

Odor:
slightly nauseous, (Kauffman), spermatic (Nishida(2), Grund)

Microscopic spores:
spores 8-10 x 5-5.5 microns, almond-shaped, subelliptic [nearly elliptic], subinequilateral [somewhat inequilateral], smooth; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia both abundant, 50-65 x 15-18(20) microns, "rather thick-walled, varying thin-walled, subcylindric to ventricose, subovoid to subflaskshaped, obtuse at the apex, tapering to a short pedicel", (Kauffman), spores 9-11(12) x 4.5-5.5(6) microns, mostly 10 x 5-5.5 microns, inequilaterally almond-shaped, bluntly pointed at apex, smooth; basidia 4-spored, 23-30 x 8 microns, clavate; pleurocystidia 55-70 x 16-25(28) microns, mostly 65 x 20 microns, ventricose above slender pedicel, with or without short cylindric neck, the apex obtuse, moderately thick-walled (2-3.5 microns), colorless, "cheilocystidia consisting of metuloids like the pleurocystidia and abundant, clustered, thin-walled, clavate cells", 20-25 x 7-10 microns; gill trama parallel, compact, of cells 11-20 microns wide, "fusoid in outline, or fusoid with median constriction"; cap surface of more or less parallel hyphae that are radially oriented, the outermost layer 20-35 microns deep, of compactly arranged, cylindric hyphae 5-8 microns wide, with colorless, asperulate walls, "the subtending layer of varying thickness, with more loosely arranged hyphae 7-16 microns in diam, of [sic] fusoid or inflated cells with brown, pigment-incrusted walls"; stem apex with numerous clusters of metuloids and short clavate cells [cauloparacystidia] like those on gill edge, stem base with abundant, tangled, slender, colorless hyphae, no dermatocaulocystidia; most septa with clamp connections, (Grund and Stuntz who note "the species shows considerably more variation than is indicated by the description of Nova Scotian specimens, drawn from a single collection. For instance, moderately thick-walled pleurocystidia like those of the Nova Scotian collection are not infrequently encountered, but the fusoid, thick-walled metuloids of the Michigan specimens ... are more characteristic of the species"), oleiferous hyphae refractive, greenish yellow, 3.5-8.0 microns wide, scattered in the stem and cap trama, (Ammirati(11)), spores 10 x 5-5.5 microns, somewhat almond-shaped; pleurocystidia ventricose, very thick-walled (3.5 microns), (Nishida(2))

Spore deposit:
yellowish brown (Ammirati)

Notes:
It has been found at least in ID, and NY to TN and MI, (Kauffman(4)), NS (Grund(3)), and CA (Nishida(2)). It has been reported from BC (according to Ammirati(11)). There are collections at the University of Washington from WA, OR, ID, and MI.

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