Melanoleuca cognata, also known as Spring Cavalier, is a medium or large agaric, that is pale brown with an umbonate cap and white gills. It occurs often in the spring, when few other gilled mushrooms are fruiting, and grows solitary or scattered on soil and needle litter in coniferous woodlands; occasionally in litter-rich grassland, woodchip or garden compost heaps.

Cap buff to warm brown, initially hemispherical becoming convex and then flattening with a low umbo. The flesh is cream-coloured, soft and full. Gills crowded, sinuate, notched and pink to dark ocher coloured. Stem rust coloured with brownish fibrils, tapering slightly upwards from a more or less bulbous base. It has no ring. Spore print pale cream coloured.

Microscopic Features: The spores are ellipsoidal and finely warty, measuring 7-9.5 x 4-6μm and amyloid.

Melanoleuca cognata on the First NatureWeb site.
Melanoleuca cognata on the MushroomExpert.Com Web site.