About this fungus
Common Conecap is a fungus in the Bolbitiaceae family. Its habitat and field characteristics are summarised below.
A small, delicate grassland mushroom with a smooth ochre to cinnamon-brown cap on a long, thin stem. The cap begins conical, opens towards a bell shape and often becomes much paler as it dries. Its fragile build and rusty mature gills place it among the many difficult small brown mushrooms rather than making it distinctive on sight.
Identification features to check
Look for a faintly lined cap edge, crowded gills that mature from pale ochre to cinnamon or rust brown, and a rust-brown spore print. The slender hollow stem is finely granular or downy, has no volva and normally lacks a ring, with the base sometimes slightly swollen. Exact identification usually needs a microscope. Conocybe tenera has fairly large, thick-walled ellipsoid spores with a broad germ pore, together with characteristic flask-shaped cells on the stem surface.
Variation
Moist caps are darker ochre, cinnamon or rust brown and show their radiating lines more clearly. As the cap loses water it can fade quickly through yellow-ochre to beige, sometimes leaving the centre darker. Young gills are pale, while mature gills become increasingly cinnamon or rusty as the spores develop. These moisture and age changes account for much of the colour range seen in photographs.
Lookalikes
Other Conocybe species can be extremely similar and often require spore measurements and other microscopic characters. Pale Conocybe apala is usually whiter and collapses very quickly. The deadly Pholiotina rugosa, formerly called Conocybe filaris, contains amatoxins and commonly develops a stem ring, but a damaged or lost ring is not a safe exclusion. Small Galerina, Psathyrella and Panaeolus species add further possibilities, so a photograph and cap colour are not enough for a confident species identification.
Habitat and range
Saprobic on rich or disturbed ground, especially short grass in lawns, parks, gardens, pastures and manured meadows. It can also occur in woodchip or leaf litter around woodland edges. Fruiting can extend from spring into autumn when the ground is damp, depending on the local climate. The species group is reported widely across temperate Europe, North America and parts of Asia and North Africa.
Food safety
Inedible.