Summary:
1) The habitat on dung of moose (the same species as Eurasian elk) is a distinctive character. Features also include 2) a viscid to slimy cap that is yellow or yellow with yellow-brown center, and may be hemispheric, 3) veil remnants at cap margin, 4) crowded gills that are grayish, then dark purple-brown to black with white-fringed edges, often mottled, 5) a stem that is slender, viscid to slimy, whitish and pruinose in upper part and yellowish in lower part, 6) a thin, glutinous ring near top of stem, and 7) microscopic characters. In Poland it also fruits on the dung of red deer, and there are reports of this species occurring of dung of other animals elsewhere (known collection on hare pellets in Kytovuori 1999 and a report on cow dung), (Halama(1)).

Gills:
"broadly adnate with decurrent tooth or emarginate-adnate with decurrent tooth, segmentiform to subventricose", up to 0.8cm broad, rather crowded, 30-40 gills reaching stem, 3-7 subgills between neighboring gills; pale gray turning violaceous-black from spores, edge whitish and fimbriate, (Noordeloos), broadly adnate, "usually somewhat emarginate or with small decurrent tooth", "triangular or segmentiform at first, later subventricose", distant, 15-26 gills reaching stem, 3-5 subgills between neighboring gills; pale gray olivaceous at first then dark gray olivaceous, "often clearly mottled"; edge white and fimbriate, (Halama)

Stem:
4.0-22.0cm x 0.3-0.6cm, cylindric, often gradually widening toward base which is up to 1.2cm wide; white above ring zone, pale yellow to pale ocher below ring, staining brown when bruised or old; strongly glutinous, above ring zone somewhat pruinose; glutinous ring about 0.5-1.2cm from top of stem, (Noordeloos), stem 3.0-16.0 x 0.15-0.5cm, cylindric or slightly evenly widening toward base, regularly widened at base, "hollow with a narrow cavity"; "pale yellow in upper half, in basal part deep yellow to ochraceous"; dry above ring zone and "slightly pruinose to minutely pruinose-furfuraceous", below ring zone "glutinous to viscid when moist or sticky when dry, sometimes faintly girdled with darker lines"; "with a thin, faint, glutinous annulus" 0.5-3.0cm below top, often visible as a line darkened by spores (annular zone), (Halama)

Veil:
appendiculate fibrillose remnants at cap margin and glutinous ring on upper stem (Noordeloos)

Odor:
indistinct (Noordeloos), not distinctive (Halama)

Taste:
mild (Noordeloos)

Microscopic spores:
12-17 x (6.5)7-8.5(9) microns, oval-elliptic, thick-walled, apical germ pore up to 2.5 microns wide; basidia 4-spored, 25-44 x 8-16 microns; gill edge sterile, cheiloleptocystidia 20-50 x 2-5 x 3-9 microns, "lageniform to tibiiform with rounded, slightly to distinctly broadened, rounded apex"; "cheilochrysocystidia and pleurocystidia abundant", 30-50 x 6-12 microns, "clavate-rostrate or fusiform"; clamp connections abundant, (Noordeloos), spores 13.3-15.6 x 7.1-8.0 microns, 11.8-17.4 x 6.4-8.7 microns, (according to Kytovuori 1999 12.5-16.3 x 7.0-8.6 microns), oblong to subcylindric in side view, oblong-oval in front view, somewhat flattened adaxially, "smooth, umber in Melzer''s reagent, thick-walled", with distinct central germ pore 1.5-2.1 microns; basidia 4-spored, broadly clavate, with clamp connection; cheiloleptocystidia abundant, "narrowly clavate with more or less swollen apex (not distinctly capitate)", middle part often flexuous, thin-walled, cheilochrysocystidia not seen, pleurochrysocystidia "rare to not very abundant", "fusiform to lageniform, typically with mucronate to rostrate apex"; clamp connections abundant in all tissues, (Halama)

Spore deposit:
purplish black (Halama)

Notes:
P. alcis has been found in WA (photo attached). Distribution also includes NL and Fennoscandia and recorded from Italy on unidentified dung, probably deer (Noordeloos). European range includes Estonia, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Poland, (Halama). There are collections from BC at the University of British Columbia.

EDIBILITY

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Stropharia alcis Kytov.