page_title: Mushroom hunting
section_title: Little brown mushrooms
hierarchical_section_title: Mushroom hunting / Identifying mushrooms / Little brown mushrooms
caption_attribution_description: Inocybe spec. from Commanster, Belgium. The determination of the species shown in this picture has been verified.
context_page_description: Mushroom hunting, mushrooming, mushroom picking, mushroom foraging, shrooming, and similar terms describe the activity of gathering mushrooms in the wild, typically for food. This practice is popular throughout most of Europe, Australia, Japan, Korea, parts of the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent, as well as the temperate regions of Canada and the United States.
context_section_description: "Little brown mushrooms" (or LBMs) refers to a large number of small, dull-coloured agaric species, with few macromorphological uniquely distinguishing characteristics. As a result, LBMs typically range from difficult to impossible for mushroom hunters to identify. Experienced mushroomers may discern more subtle identifying traits that help narrow the mushroom down to a particular genus or group of species, but exact identification of LBMs often requires close examination of microscopic characteristics plus a certain degree of familiarity or specialization in that particular group.
  For mycologists, LBMs are the equivalent of LBJs ("little brown jobs") and DYCs ("damned yellow composites") that are the bane of ornithologists and botanists, respectively.
  "Big white mushroom" (or BWM) is also sometimes used to describe groups of difficult to identify larger and paler agarics, many of which are in the genus Clitocybe.
caption: Inocybe lacera is a typical little brown mushroom, and is easily identifiable only by distinctive microscopic features.
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