Fungi ID?

[FancyPants]

Hi guys,

I found a couple of mushrooms in some cow patties around your average eucalyptus sydney area paddock which look a lot like panaeolus sp to me, but I'm absolutely no expert on fungus and would love some expert advice to what they are. The cap diameter is about 5cm (which I thought was a bit big). The spore print is charcoal from what I see. The gills don't quite touch the cap inside the top. The stem has some dark patch near the top which is on the surface only, underneath the flesh is silvery off white. Where the stem had been pinched it had gone soft but not blue.

There was a second type of mushroom which had a flatter cap but a bit more golden coloured. It seemed to my friend (who's knows even less about fungi than I) that they were the same species just in a different stage of growth.

Thanks so much for your help. I won't be eating these regardless of what they turn out to be Also we made a point of snapping the stems off (just two) rather than pulling them out of the ground.

[Anodyne]

Looks like Panaeolus antillarum, one of the species I only ever ID'd because I wanted to be able to curse them by name, good-for-nothing paddock-lurkers that they are. The metallic silvery-gold sheen on the older caps can be stunning though.

Edited March 8, 2014 by Anodyne

[paradox]

yep anodynes on the money i reckon. they are easily recognized compared to other similar-ish looking panaeolus species with a bit of practice

[FancyPants]

Thanks guys I had a feeling from the size, colour, lack of obvious bruising, and the scaling on the cap, that these ones weren't going to be helpful for creative purposes. I'm super keen to reacquaint myself with these wonderfungiful friends but as much as I'd love to have them available to me, I'd much rather see them in their natural habitat and ask their permission myself So... that means one can only go hunting and LEARN, which is so exciting!