How to tell Stinking dapperling from Deadly dapperling

The cap is 1.5–5 cm across, occasionally up to 6. Young caps are bell-shaped or bluntly conical, then convex, later flattening, often with a low central bump. The surface is dry, not sticky.

The background is white or cream. The tawny, orange-brown or reddish-brown skin breaks up into small scales as the cap expands. They lie in concentric rings and thin out towards the edge. The centre stays a solid, smooth dark patch, and this 'eye' on a pale cap is usually the first thing you notice. The margin is sometimes finely lined.

The cap is small, 2-5 cm across, hemispherical to convex when young, later flattening out with a broad, low bump in the centre. Overall it's pale cream or pinkish-cream, with characteristic concentric rings of reddish-brown or brick-coloured scales (as if dusted with ground pepper). The scales crowd together at the centre and thin out toward the edge. Beneath them the surface is smooth.

The gills are free, meaning they don't reach the stem, crowded, with short gills in between. They are white or cream and darken only slightly with age.

The spore print is white to creamy. Pink or chocolate gills mean it isn't a dapperling but, for example, an Agaricus mushroom. Even so, a white print doesn't make a small parasol edible.

Underneath are crowded, thin gills that are free (not attached to the stem), white to cream, turning cream-ochre with age. The spore print is white, an important feature for telling it apart from Agaricus mushrooms, whose print is chocolate-black.

The stem is 2–7 cm tall and only 2–5 mm thick, even or slightly thicker towards the base, smooth, silky, hollow and fragile. It's whitish or cream, pinkish or brownish towards the base, with white mycelial fluff at the very bottom.

The ring on the upper stem is white, thin, membranous and very fragile. Older specimens often have none at all, so a missing ring doesn't rule out a dapperling. There is no volva or sac at the base.

The stem is 3-6 cm tall and 0.3-0.7 cm thick, cylindrical and slender. It's whitish toward the top, with reddish-brown or pink tones and small scales lower down. The ring is either absent or just a thin, indistinct band of scales, practically invisible in mature mushrooms. The stem flesh is firm.

The flesh is thin and white and doesn't change colour when broken. Field guides describe the taste as mild or unremarkable.

The flesh is thin and white, with a pinkish tinge in the lower part of the stem. It doesn't change colour quickly when cut. There's no strong odour, just a delicate fruity smell.

The smell is strong and unpleasant: sharp, like rubber, coal gas or chemicals, which is how it earned the name 'stinking'. Some people pick up something fruity or sweetish in it. The smell helps identify the species, but it doesn't make the mushroom any safer.

Faintly fruity and sweet, a bit like apples, and that's exactly what makes it so treacherous. The smell raises no alarm; if anything, it's appealing, especially to children. Don't rely on smell or taste to identify it: neither gives any hint of deadly toxicity.