Almost missed 'em

Came across these mushrooms sprouting up from a bank in Horton Wood on Sunday.

They were pretty fragile and many were broken and toppled over by the time I got to them.

I was intrigued to see they were very similar (the same?) as a mushroom I'd found the day before at Lodsworth (photos here). Interesting how environmental conditions will trigger particular species of fungi to suddenly appear.

I think these are a Psathyrella species.

They produced a reddish brown spore print.

I also had a look at the microcharacters...

Mature spores mounted in water at 400x magnification.

The smooth, dark brown spores were all between 7-8 microns long x 4 - 4.5 microns wide.

Gill edge squash mounted in water at 400x magnification.

I think I could make out a 'germ pore', which is significant in the key in Funga Nordica.

Gill edge squash mounted in water at 400x magnification.

I found lots of 'utriform' cheilocystidia on the gill edges. I looked for cystidia on the gill face (pleurocystidia) and couldn't find any.

An attempt at a gill trama squash mounted in water at 400x magnification.

You can just about make out a basidium here. It looks like it's bearing two spores, but I think I saw at least one more when I was twiddling the focus knob.

There are loads of different Psathyrella species, but I'm hoping these characters together make this a fairly safe bet for Pale Brittlestem P. candolleana  – a common and widespread species found in woodland and grassland.

For the record
Date: 3 June 2018 
Location: Horton Wood, Small Dole
Grid reference: TQ208127 (site centroid) 

Record entered into FRDBI 07/09/2018