Small to medium agaric, growing on dung, rarely on the ground, with a purple-brown or black spore print. Pileus pale, yellow, brown or green, viscid or glutinous. Lamellae adnate. Stipe central. Partial veil remnants a ring zone or absent. Spores brown or greyish, smooth; germ pore broad. Cheilocystidia present. Lamellar trama regular. Pileipellis a cutis. Clamp connections present or absent.

Other species of Stropharia do not have such a distinctively glutinous stipe, and they do not grow on dung. Other non-deliquescent, dung-inhabiting agarics with a dark spore print include Copelandia (with metuloid cystidia and the pileipellis an epithelium), Panaeolus (with pileipellis a hymeniderm or epithelium, and chrysocystidia present or absent) and Psilocybe (chrysocystidia lacking),

Stropharia subgenus Stercophila (Romagn. ex Noordel.) [not yet combined in Stropharia, based on Psilocybe subgenus Stercophila Romagn. ex Noordeloos, Persoonia 16: 27 (1995)].

Three species: Stropharia semiglobata, S. subuda and Stropharia sp. (= Psilocybe parvula).

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

In native forests, and in pine plantations.

On dung of native and exotic animals.

Saprotrophic.

Breitenbach, J. & Kränzlin, F. (eds) (1995), Fungi of Switzerland. Volume 4. Agarics 2nd part. Edition Mykologia, Lucerne. [Description, Microcharacters and Illustration of S. semiglobata 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 parvula, noting that it is close to Stropharia semiglobata (and thus belongs in Stropharia subgenus Stercophila)]

Fuhrer, B. (2005), A Field Guide to Australian Fungi. Bloomings Books, Hawthorn. [Description and Illustration of S. semiglobata]

Fuhrer, B. & Robinson, R. (1992), Rainforest Fungi of Tasmania and South-east Australia. CSIRO Press, East Melbourne. [Illustration of S. semiglobata]

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. semiglobata and S. subuda, and Illustration of the first species]

McCann, I.R. (2003), Australian Fungi Illustrated. Macdown Productions, Vermont. [Illustration of S. semiglobata and another unnamed dung-inhabiting species]

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 S. semiglobata]