Pseudoomphalina - click to expand
Not only are they hard to tell from other genera (and even mushrooms in
other families) they don't look anything alike themselves. They were
separated from Clitocybe by having amyloid spores and cystidia
along with the similar
Pseudolaccaria, but some European authors say both segregate genera
lack cystidia so at best the cystidia are hard to find and there are no good
separating characters besides this being one of the many genera that, unlike
Clitocybe, have amyloid spores.
Species
mentioned: Pseudoomphalina angelesiana, intermedia, kalchbrenneri.
Neohygrophorus angelesianus.
Pseudoomphalina angelesiana WA (=Neohygrophorus angelesianus)
- a snowbank mushroom (although it has been found in the fall) in variable shades of brown, usually viscid, decurrent, and an often
umbilicate species that
sometimes looks somewhat
waxy. These are some of the sequenced pictures that show its variation. The
WA type sequence has a couple of ambiguous locations in ITS, and there are a few
other differences between sequences as well. It's possible there is more than
one species hiding in here.

Pseudoomphalina angelesiana © Krista Willmorth (from Idaho), Dean Lyons, Damon Tighe, and
Warren Cardimona (all from California)
Pseudoomphalina intermedia WA
- a farinaceous, dry capped little clitocyboid/omphalinoid (it's
kind of intermediate in size) usually with strongly decurrent gills and an
indented cap (sometimes sharply), but also quite variable looking
as these photos show. The similar
Pseudolaccaria pachyphylla is
bitter tasting. We have the WA type sequence and sequences from WA, OR and ID
that match almost perfectly (without the variation in ITS of P. angelesiana).
Pseudoomphalina kalchbrenneri EU - supposedly paler without the
farinaceous odor, according to NA authors, but in Europe they say it is
farinaceous. It has been reported from the PNW but we have no local sequences to
prove that these reports are not mistaken P. intermedia. We need
collections, as given the confusion, it might not really be here.

Pseudoomphalina intermedia © Richard Morrison, Yi-Min Wang, and Connor Dooley
(2 images)
Pseudoomphalina PNW02 -
A beautiful completely purple mushroom that fades to brown. It is only known from an OR and a WA
collection.

Pseudoomphalina PNW02 © iNaturalist user nils2 (3 images)