Summary:
Features include 1) a viscid, peelable, striate, conic cap that is chestnut brown, (drying dark dingy yellow to pale yellow), often with a pallid marginal band and frequently olive green in patches, 2) flesh in stem and cap that turns blue slightly when cut, 3) adnate to adnexed, close gills that are dull cinnamon-brown becoming purple-brown, 4) a slender stem that is whitish to pallid to grayish to brownish, covered with patches of grayish fibrils, and blue-green where bruised or when old, 5) a farinaceous odor and taste, 6) gregarious fruiting on well-decayed conifer substrate, in mulch, or in soil rich in lignin, 7) a purple-brown spore deposit, and 8) microscopic characters.

Cap:
0.5-2(3)cm across, conic to bell-shaped, margin generally not incurved in young specimens; hygrophanous, chestnut brown when moist drying dark dingy yellow to pale yellow, "often with a pallid band along the margin, and frequently tinged olive green in patches"; "smooth, viscid when moist from a separable gelatinous pellicle", margin translucent-striate, (Stamets), (0.5)1-1.5(3)cm across, obtusely conic to convex or conic - bell-shaped or somewhat umbonate, sometimes slightly papillate, never fully expanding; "hygrophanous, reddish brown or brownish orange, fading to pale dull alutaceous or pale yellowish brown, sometimes whitish to yellowish or cream color", often with greenish blue tints when old; viscid, with separable gelatinous pellicle, bald or irregularly covered at first with white floccose veil scales, with small white marginal appendages from veil when young, margin translucent-striate when moist, (Guzman(1))

Flesh:
thin, pliant, colored more or less as cap, (Stamets), thin and pliant in cap, somewhat tough in stem; whitish in cap, reddish brown in stem, in both cap and stem blueing slightly when cut, (Guzman(1))

Gills:
"adnate to adnexed, finally separating, close, narrow to moderately broad"; dull cinnamon-brown, then darkening with spores, (Stamets), adnate to adnexed, eventually seceding, close; "whitish when young to cinnamon brown or violaceous brown, with whitish edges", (Guzman(1))

Stem:
6-8cm x 0.1-0.25cm, equal in upper part, slightly widened at base, stem stuffed with a tough pith; whitish to pallid to grayish, more brownish toward base, covered with appressed grayish fibers, blue-green where bruised or when old; pruinose at top, (Stamets); (2)4-5(10)cm x (0.1)0.15-0.25(0.4)cm, equal or with enlarged or somewhat bulbous base, stuffed to hollow, straight or more often flexuous [wavy]; "whitish to yellowish or grayish brownish or pale reddish brown", becoming bister when old; pruinose in upper part, mottled or covered by appressed white silky fibrils from veil, (Guzman(1))

Veil:
partial veil "thin to obscure or absent", (Stamets), well formed as white arachnoid (cobwebby) coating in young stages, but not forming ring, soon disappearing except for fibrils or scales on both cap and stem, (Guzman(1))

Odor:
farinaceous mainly when young and fresh (Guzman(1))

Taste:
farinaceous mainly when young and fresh (Guzman(1))

Microscopic spores:
spores 9-13 x 5-7 microns, subelliptic [more or less elliptic] to suboval [more or less oval]; basidia 4-spored; pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia 17-36 x 4-7.5 microns, fusiform to lance-shaped, with an elongated neck 1.5-2 microns wide, (Stamets), spores (8.2)9.3-11(13) x 5-6 microns, elliptic or suboval both in side and face view, yellowish brown, moderately thick-walled (0.5 microns), with broad germ pore; basidia 4-spored, 22-35 x 7-10 microns, ventricose or subpyriform, frequently with a median constriction; pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia abundant, forming a sterile band, (17)20-36 x (3.8)4.4-6.6(7.5) microns, colorless, "fusiform-lanceolate or fusiform-ventricose, often pedicellate", and with elongated neck 1.5-2 microns wide, tapering to acute or subacute apex, sometimes irregularly branched, frequently with colorless viscous drop at top; clamp connections common, (Guzman(1)), spores 10-13 x 6-7 microns, elliptic, thick-walled, wall up to 0.8 microns wide; pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia 19-37 x 4.5-6.5 microns, lageniform, frequently irregularly branched, (Guzman(4)), [spores presumably smooth]

Spore deposit:
purplish brown (Stamets), purplish brown or dark violaceous brown (Guzman(1))

Notes:
Collections were examined from BC, WA, OR, ID, CA, MI, Finland, (Guzman).

EDIBILITY

less potent than Psilocybe semilanceata and P. cyanescens, up to 0.4% psilocybin, no psilocin, and 0.04% baeocystin, (Stamets)