Powdery Piggyback

Asterophora lycoperdoides

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Mushrooms

By Roger Phillips

Published 2006

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Powdery Piggyback Asterophora lycoperdoides (Bull.) Ditmar (illustrated slightly larger then life size) Cap 0.5–1.5cm across, subglobose; clay-buff, mealy coating of chlamydospores. Stem 5–10×2–5mm; whitish. Flesh grey to dark brown. Gills creamy, covered with persistent white veil. Spores 5.5×3.5¼, broadly elliptical, usually only on young gills; white. Chlamydospores in cap 13–16¼ diameter, subglobose, covered in long, blunt processes giving a star-shaped appearance; clay-buff. Habitat on rotting Russula nigricans; summer to late autumn. Occasional – more common in wet periods. Not edible.