Weeping Widow

Psathyrella velutina

Roadsides, forest edges, parks, ditch banks. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies medium-sized. Cap 3-9 (10) cm across, flattened, with a blunt umbo, dirty yellowish-brown, orange-brown, fading to brownish, shaggy with reddish fibrils. Gills cream, later reddish-brown, chocolate-coloured when old, adnate. Stem 3–10x0.3–1.3 cm, not fragile, yellowish, brownish, white-dotted in the upper part. Flesh yellowish, fairly thick, without any particular smell or taste. Characteristic features: widespread along ditches, roadsides, forest edges, among grass. Grows in groups, among grass, in damp places, most often near drainage ditches. Some sources state that it is edible though of little value, others that it is inedible or even poisonous. Common.