Small to medium agaric, growing on dung or manured soil with black spore print. Pileus white, pale or brown, dry or moist or slightly viscid. Lamellae adnexed or adnate. Stipe central. Partial veil absent or fugacious, not leaving remnants on the stipe, but sometimes the pileus margin appendiculate. Fruit-body bruising blue. Spores brown or black, smooth; with a broad germ pore. Cheilocystidia present, metuloid (thick-walled with apical crystals). Lamellar trama regular. Pileipellis an epithelium. Clamp connections present.

Differs from Panaeolus (other) by the blue staining of the fruit-body and the presence of metuloid (thick-walled) cystidia in the hymenium. Some species of Psilocybe, such as P. cubensis, stain blue and grow on dung, but their spore print is dark brown or purple-brown (not black) and the pileipellis is a cutis (not an epithelium).

One species: Panaeolus cyanescens (= Copelandia).

Panaeolus cyanescens (Berk. & Broome) Sacc., Syll. Fung. 5: 1123 (1887).

N.T., Qld and N.S.W.

In pastures or gardens.

On dung or manured soil.

Saprotrophic.

Gerhardt, E. (1996), Taxonomische Revision der Gattungen Panaeolus und Panaeolina (Fungi, Agaricales, Coprinaceae), Bibliotheca Botanica, Heft 147, E. Schweizetbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart. [Description and Microcharacters of P. cyanescens]

Pegler, D.N. (1977), A preliminary agaric flora of East Africa, Kew Bull., Addit. Ser. 6: 1–615. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of P. cyanescens (as Copelandia]

Pegler, D.N. (1986), Agaric flora of Sri Lanka, Kew Bull., Addit. Ser. 12: 1–519. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of P. cyanescens (as Copelandia)]

Watling, R. & Gregory, N. (1987), British Fungus Flora. Agarics and Boleti. 5 / Strophariaceae & Coprinaceae p.p. Hypholoma, Melanotus, Psilocybe, Stropharia, Lacrymaria & Panaeolus. Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of P. cyanescens (as Copelandia)]

Young, A.M. (1989a), The Panaeoloideae (Fungi, Basidiomycetes) of Australia, Austral. Syst. Bot. 2: 75–97. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of P. cyanescens (as Copelandia]

Young, T. (1997b), Panaeolina, Panaeolus and Copelandia, in C.A. Grgurinovic, Larger Fungi of South Australia, 480–490. The Botanic Gardens of Adelaide and State Herbarium and The Flora and Fauna of South Australia Handbooks Committee, Adelaide. [Description and Microcharacters of P. cyanescens (as Copelandia)]

Young, A.M. (2005b), A Field Guide to the Fungi of Australia. University of New South Wales Press, Sydney. [Description and B&W Illustration of P. cyanescens]