Melanoleuca strictipes

Melanoleuca strictipes (P. Karst.) Jul. Schäff. (illustrated 30% life size) Cap 4–10cm across, convex and slightly umbonate; white to cream or pallid, sometimes darker at the centre. Stem 80–140×8–12mm, often twisted, swollen at the base or bulbous; concolorous with cap or paler; fibrous. Flesh white; thick; taste slight, smell strongly of meal. Gills white to cream, sometimes tinged slightly pinkish. Spores 8–9×4.5–5¼, elliptical, minutely warted; amyloid. Spore print white. Cheilocystidia lanceolate, often encrusted with crystals at apex, thin-walled, hyaline. Habitat amongst grass in open woodland or pasture; early summer to autumn. Rare. Edible but too rare to pick. Note Henrici (2001) comments that the cap and gills here are rather strongly coloured for this species.