How to tell Verdigris agaric from Liberty cap

The cap is small, 1-2.5 cm across, sharply conical or bell-shaped with a pronounced pointed knob in the center — hence the epithet semilanceata ("half-lance-shaped"). The cap skin is smooth, slimy in wet weather, dry with lengthwise grooves in dry weather. Color ochre-cream; olive-brown with a greenish tint in wet weather, pale cream in dry weather. The pointed central knob — the most characteristic diagnostic feature.

Cap 3-8 cm across, when young convex-bell-shaped with an inrolled margin, with age becoming flat and spread out with a low hump. Cap skin slimy and sticky in wet weather, dry and matte when dry, with a characteristic metallic sheen. Color strikingly blue-green to bluish green, deeper in the center, paler toward the margin, in mature specimens fading to yellowish green. Often with white scales — remnants of the veil — at the margin.

Gilled hymenophore — the gills are attached to the stem, moderately crowded. In young ones they're grayish-cream, darkening with age to purplish-blackish as the spores mature. Spore print dark purple-black — a diagnostic feature of the genus Psilocybe.

Gilled hymenophore — gills attached or slightly decurrent, crowded. Color when young — grayish white, with age becoming violet-blackish from the ripe spores. Spore print dark violet-black — diagnostic for the genus Stropharia.

Stem 5-10 cm tall, 0.15-0.3 cm thick — very long and thin, often curved. Color yellow-cream to light brown. The surface is smooth with fine lengthwise fibers. No ring — this is essential. It often turns blue when damaged — a characteristic psilocybin reaction (one of the diagnostic tests).

Stem 3-8 cm tall, 0.5-1 cm thick, cylindrical, hollow in old specimens. Color blue-green in the upper part, paler and whitish lower down. Surface slimy and sticky, with white cottony veil remnants. With a prominent membranous RING in the upper third of the stem, often with purple-black spore deposits on the ring.

Flesh very thin, soft, yellowish to greenish. It quickly turns blue to blue-green when cut or damaged — a characteristic reaction of psilocybin alkaloids on contact with air. The smell is faint, mealy in some populations.

Flesh thin, brittle, pale greenish white, doesn't change color when cut. Smell faint, mushroomy, with a hint of radish or damp soil, taste mild, bitterish in some populations.

Faint, neutral or mealy, nothing distinctive. The smell is not a warning sign.

Faint, mushroomy, with a hint of radish or damp soil, neutral.