About this fungus
Clustered Brittlestem is a fungus in the Psathyrellaceae family. Its habitat and field characteristics are summarised below.
Dozens of small fragile brown caps rise together from a tightly fused common base, forming a conspicuous tuft in grass or open woodland.
What to check
Expose the base and confirm many slender stems joined into one rooting cluster. Caps are strongly hygrophanous, dark clay-brown when moist and much paler when dry. Check attached grey-brown gills that darken with age, a dark brown spore print and no stem ring.
Variation
A single cluster may contain dark wet caps and pale drying caps at the same time. Caps begin conical to bell-shaped, then become convex, while stems remain very brittle.
Lookalikes
Homophron spadiceum and other clustered Psathyrellaceae may grow from buried wood but differ microscopically and often have stouter fruit bodies. Candolleomyces candolleanus is usually paler and less densely fused. Dense clustering is helpful but does not establish the species alone.
Habitat and range
Saprotrophic in grass, verges and open broadleaf woodland, often from rich soil or buried woody material. It is reported in Europe and North America under both Britzelmayria and Psathyrella.
Food safety
Edibility is uncertain or disputed.