#brittlestem

Common Stump Brittlestem

Brittlestems - destroying angel - violet cort - rooting shank(?)

Barnet, London, UK, July 2020

Common stump brittlestem (Psathyrella piluliformis)

These adorable babies were nestled in the hollow base of a tree, which I almost walked past without noticing. As the name suggests, the stem, as well as the closely packed gills of this mushroom are very brittle, as is the cap - looking at the penultimate photo, you can see where small ‘chips’ have fallen away from the edge of some of the caps, leaving them a little frayed looking, most likely from nothing more than bumping into each other as they grow and move in the wind. 

Conical brittlestem / Langsteelfranjehoed / Psathyrella conopilus

I thought this pic I took of these mushrooms was cool.

INaturalist says they’re some sort of Brittlestem and allies.

Growing in their thousands on mulch, in the middle of a highway approach. From Wiki:

Psathyrella is a large genus of about 400 fungi] and is similar to the genera Coprinellus, Coprinopsis, Coprinus and Panaeolus, usually with a thin cap and white or yellowish white hollow stem. But the caps do not self digest as do those of Coprinellus and Coprinopsis. Some also have brown spores rather than black. These fungi are often drab-colored, difficult to identify, and inedible, and so they are sometimes considered uninteresting. However they are quite common and can occur at times when there are few other mushrooms to be seen. The first report of a gilled mushroom fruiting underwater is Psathyrella aquatica.

Psathyrella is a diminutive form of Psathyra, derived from the Greek for "friable" - a reference to the brittle stipes.