Stropharia - click to expand
Everything else, but you may need to check the other two genera to make
sure.
Species
mentioned: Stropharia ambigua, coronilla, hornemannii, albivelata, inuncta,
rugosoannulata, kauffmanii, aeruginosa, caerula, pseudocyanea, cyanea,
albonitens, melanosperma.
Stropharia ambigua OR -
fairly bright yellow, covered in cottony fluffiness when fresh,
but without a defined ring. We have several sequences each of this native
species from BC, WA and OR, and they all match almost perfectly.

Stropharia ambigua © Noah Siegel
Stropharia
coronilla EU - this squat, stocky yellow grass species was
sequenced in Europe and in Whistler, and they match well, so that seems to
confirm our reports of it.

Stropharia coronilla © Noah Siegel
Stropharia hornemannii EU
- usually plain brown (but may be yellow-brown), it is a little
stockier than S. ambigua with a more developed ring and perhaps less fluff on the cap
margin. We have plenty of EU sequences as well as some AK, WA and OR sequences
to verify this species is here.

Stropharia hornemannii © Steve Trudell
Stropharia albivelata WA
- this pale to dark vinaceous brown capped species has a warmer
cinnamon spore print, and might not be recognized as Stropharia by
spore colour alone. We have no local sequences, but as it is an endemic, it's
definitely here, although we need sequences to confirm how it fits in with the
others. It has the same small spores of the next species.
Stropharia inuncta EU -
this yellow-brown capped species usually has hints of grey and purple
(and an expected purple-brown spore print).
It has much smaller spores than Stropharia hornemannii. We have reliable
EU sequences, but no local sequences to compare to to prove it is here.

probable Stropharia albivelata © Kit Scates Barnhart
Stropharia rugosoannulata MA
- red capped when young, fading to yellow or brown, in which case
the smooth stem is the best clue. Sequences world wide match very well,
so even though I have no PNW sequences yet, I'm confident ours is the same
species.

Stropharia rugosoannulata © Kit Scates Barnhart
Stropharia kaufmannii WA
- scaly caps are rare in Stropharia. This one has a dry, scaly yellow brown cap
and stem. We don't have any sequences of this rare west coast endemic
species, but since it was described from WA it's definitely what is here.
Stropharia scabella OR (Pholiota
scabella) - This one has a dry, scaly, seemingly darker
brown cap (with a scaly stem). No spore print colour known
yet, presumably dark purple-brown, but since Smith described it as a Pholiota,
it might have a more normal brown spore print. The type sequence showed it was a
Stropharia, and it has been found recently and photographed from AZ (see
photos below).

Stropharia kauffmanii © Andrew Parker, Stropharia
scabella (2 photos) © Terri Clements and Donna Fulton
Stropharia
aeruginosa EU - blue (but eventually fading to pale yellow),
large, somewhat distinct ring
Stropharia
caerula EU - blue
(fading slowly to pale yellow), small to medium, evanescent ring zone
Stropharia
pseudocyanea EU - blue
(fading more quickly to pale yellow), small, more conical to umbonate,
evanescent ring zone
These are hard to differentiate (being closely related, they have similar
spores) and even difficult to recognize as a group after the blue has faded.
With the shaggy stems and pale yellow caps, you'll probably think old faded
specimens are
Stropharia albonitens, below. We have reliable sequences of S. aeruginosa
from the EU, and couple of possible sequences of the other two, but so far, none
of our local sequences match any of the above. In fact, all 4 PNW sequences I
have are the same, and more closely related (about 4 bp different) to the EU
species Stropharia cyanea EU than they are to the EU species that are
supposedly found here.
So a good name for our most common species seems to be
Stropharia aff. cyanea, and
we need more collections of all 3 reported species to see what they really are.

Stropharia aff cyanea © NAMA and the Field Museum of Natural History,
(what a fresh group member looks like) © Kit Scates Barnhart
Stropharia albonitens EU
- this white to pale yellow Stropharia resembles the blue species after
they have faded, which it is somewhat related to. We have reliable EU sequences
but no PNW collections, which we need to make sure we really do have this
species here, and haven't just been finding faded blue Stropharias.
Stropharia melanosperma EU
- this white to pale yellow Stropharia has larger spores than the above
blue/pale yellow species. We need both EU and local sequences to compare to
confirm reports of this from the PNW.