Tricholoma virgatum, also known as the Ashen Knight, is a medium to large agaric with a distinctive silvery-grey to ashy cap that often sports a pointed, conical shape. This species is known for its smooth, fibrous texture and a cap that typically exhibits radial streaks, giving it a somewhat metallic sheen. The mushroom is found in coniferous and mixed forests, often growing in association with pine and spruce.

Cap sharply conic when young, later becoming broadly conic or nearly flat with a sharp central bump. It has a dry surface that is grey in colour, adorned with darker grey, innate to appressed radiating fibrils and streaks. Gills very pale grey initially, darkening with a pinkish tinge as they age. They are crowded and sinuate or emarginate, featuring a finely-toothed edge. Stem white or pale grey, smooth, and cylindrical or slightly clavate in shape. It is covered with silky, appressed fibres and has a dry texture. The stem has no ring. Spore print white.

Microscopic Features: The spores are broadly ellipsoidal and smooth, measuring 6-7.5 x 5-6.5 µm. They feature a pronounced hilar appendage and are inamyloid, meaning they do not stain with iodine-based reagents.

Tricholoma virgatum on the www.first-nature.com Web site.
Tricholoma virgatum on the MushroomExpert.Com Web site.