Small to very large agaric, growing on the ground or in litter or mulch, with a purple-brown or black spore print. Pileus yellow, brown, red or pink or purple, viscid or not. Lamellae adnexed, adnate or sinuate or notched. Stipe central. Partial veil remnants a membranous annulus. Spores yellow-brown, reddish brown or purplish, smooth; germ pore absent, narrow or broad. Cheilocystidia present. Chrysocystidia present (at least in Australian species). Lamellar trama regular. Pileipellis a cutis or a trichoderm; hypoderm not subcellular. Clamp connections present or absent.

Stropharia subgenus Stercophila differs in its occurrence on dung and the markedly glutinous stipe. Some species of Stropharia resemble Agaricus, but that genus has free lamellae and chrysocystidia are absent. Some robust Psilocybe also resemble Stropharia, but they lack chrysocystidia and often stain blue. In Hypholoma the hypoderm is subcellular. The partial veil is membranous, and it usually leaves a well-developed annulus, but this can disappear with age.

Three species: Stropharia coronilla, S. rugosoannulata and Stropharia sp. (= Psilocybe formosa).

S.A., N.S.W., Vic. and Tas. (and probably also W.A., N.T. and Qld).

In native forests and in parks and gardens, sometimes in lawns (S. coronilla).

On the ground, litter or mulch.

Saprotrophic.

Breitenbach, J. & Kränzlin, F. (eds) (1995), Fungi of Switzerland. Volume 4. Agarics 2nd part. Edition Mykologia, Lucerne. [Description, Microcharacters and Illustration of S. coronilla and S. rugosoannulata and seven other species from Europe]

Chang, Y.S., Gates, G.M. & Ratkowsky, D.A. (2006), Some new species of the Strophariaceae (Agaricales) in Tasmania, Australas. Mycol. 24: 53–68. [B&W Illustration, Description and Microcharacters of Psilocybe formosa, noting that it belongs in Psilocybe subgenus Stropharia (i.e. Stropharia as delimited in FunKey)]

Fuhrer, B. & Robinson, R. (1992), Rainforest Fungi of Tasmania and South-east Australia. CSIRO Press, East Melbourne. [Illustration of an unnamed Stropharia (as Psilocybe formosa)]

Grgurinovic, C.A. (1997a), Larger Fungi of South Australia. The Botanic Gardens of Adelaide and State Herbarium and The Flora and Fauna of South Australia Handbooks Committee, Adelaide. [Description and Microcharacters of S. coronilla]