Galerina marginata

The fruitbody is a mushroom with a cap atop a central stem. The cap is initially somewhat conical but flattens with age to become shallowly convex, often with a central hump (or umbo). The cap may be up to 4 centimetres in diameter, in shades of orange brown, with a slightly paler and striate margin. It is smooth and soapy or sticky to the touch. The gills are yellowish brown. The brown or brownish stem may be up to 5 centimetres long and half a centimetre in diameter.

A partial veil is present when young and this leaves an adhering ring of tissue around the upper part of the stem. There is no universal veil

Spore print: brown.  

The mushrooms may appear on the ground (often in moss beds) or on dead wood.

Toxicity: In the northern hemisphere this species has been found to contain amatoxins (as found in Amanita phalloides, the Deathcap).  

Look-alikes

Galerina patagonica is a Galerina of similar size and colour, which also occurs in the ACT. The two species are microscopically distinct. Some species of Gymnopilus produce similar sized, brown-spored mushrooms  (with partial veils) from dead wood.

References

Gulden, G., Dunham, S. & Stockman, J. (2001). DNA studies in the Galerina marginata complex,  Mycological Research, 105, 432-440.

Smith, A.H. (1953). New Species of Galerina from North America, Mycologia, 45, 892-925.

Wood, A.E. (2001). Studies in the genus Galerina (Agaricales) in Australia, Australian Systematic Botany, 14, 615-676.

Comments

In Wood's paper Galerina unicolor and Galerina marginata are separate species, with the former growing on soil, the latter on wood. The author was following the European practice of the time but did note that the distinctness of the two species could be questioned. In the same year Gulden et al concluded that there was no justification for keeping them distinct (and also listed some other species that could no longer be considered distinct from marginata).  

Wood included one other robust species, Galerina rudericola, (cap up to 5 cm, stem  4 mm in diameter). In Smith's original description it was a delicate species (cap to 25 mm, stem to 2 mm diameter) and he said it looked "like a very slender form of G. marginata".  Wood said that the various Australian specimens he'd seen were microscopically consistent with Smith's (and that until then the species had been known only from the original American collection). Since one of Wood's collections was from "Nowra, Morton National Park" the species may one day turn up in the Canberra Nature Map area.