Ringed conecap

Description

The ringed conecap is a tiny, fragile little mushroom: the cap is 1–2 cm across, orange-brown in the centre and yellowish-brown towards the margin, with a striate margin. The thin stem, a few centimetres tall, has a movable ring, and the gills are at first whitish, then brownish.

It grows on the ground, in spring and summer, in woods, but also in places altered by humans: on wood chips, in flower beds, on compost. It occurs worldwide; in Poland it is rarely recorded.

It is a deadly poisonous species, containing amatoxins, and at the same time easy to overlook and to mistake for small, harmless little mushrooms. Without a microscope it is hard to identify reliably. Do not pick small brown mushrooms from the ground, compost or wood chips. The poison cannot be removed in the kitchen.

Identification features

Cap

Tiny: diameter 1–2 cm (descriptions also give values below 3 cm); at first broadly conical to bell-shaped, then broadly convex to plano-convex, sometimes with an umbo. Surface greasy to the touch, smooth, bare or finely wrinkled in the centre; dark orange-brown in the centre and yellowish-brown towards the margin. Margin striate roughly to the middle of the cap.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

Gills narrowly adnate (descriptions also give adnate gills), crowded, with numerous intermediate gills; whitish, then brownish (descriptions also give rusty-brown), covered in young specimens with a whitish partial veil.

Stem

Height 2–3.5 cm (descriptions also give 1–6 cm), thickness 2–3 mm, fragile, even above a slightly swollen base. Surface brownish in the lower part and whitish in the upper part, dusted to fibrillose. Ring fairly persistent, whitish to brownish, widening upwards, movable, sometimes with a grooved upper edge.

Flesh

Thin, watery, brownish, does not change colour when damaged; no characteristic smell or taste. It must not be tasted; do not taste the flesh of this or any suspicious mushroom.

Spore print and spores

Spore print rusty-brown. Spores ellipsoid, smooth, with germ pores 1–1.5 µm, walls about 0.5 µm, light orange-brown in KOH; 8–9 × 5–6 µm.

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. Terrestrial saprotroph. Grows in woods, but also in urban areas: on woody debris, wood chips, in flower beds and on compost heaps; singly or in groups.

Distribution. Occurs on all continents except Antarctica (in Europe, Asia and North America; especially common in the Pacific Northwest). In Poland the localities were first given by A. Kujawa and B. Gierczyk in 2011; in the online mushroom atlas it is on the list of threatened species worth protecting. Not legally protected.

Fruiting. In spring and summer; exact months — no data.

What can it be confused with?

• Galerina marginata (funeral bell) — Also deadly poisonous; it is larger and grows on fallen logs, not on the ground.
• Other species of the genera Conocybe, Agrocybe, Tubaria — The ringed conecap is distinguished by a distinct ring and by microscopic features; without a microscope reliable identification is difficult.
• Mushrooms of the genus Psilocybe — Sometimes confused with them; detailed differences — no data.

Never rely on a single feature. If you are not sure — do not pick it; show the mushroom to a qualified mushroom expert.

Interesting facts

• The species was described in 1898 by the American mycologist Charles Horton Peck; since then it has been moved between the genera Pholiota, Pholiotina and Conocybe.
• The current Polish name stożkówka pomarszczona is a recommendation of the Commission for Polish Fungal Nomenclature from 2025.
• In Polish literature its localities were first given by Kujawa and Gierczyk in 2011; before that it was missing from the checklist of Polish macrofungi.
• It is described as a common and very toxic species, especially frequent in the northwestern USA, where it grows on wood chips and in flower beds.