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Coprinopsis marcescibilis

species of fungus

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 12, 2025
Entity authorityQ10498621 ↗
Source-derived summary

Coprinopsis marcescibilis is a species of agaric fungus in the family Psathyrellaceae, originally described by Max Britzelmayr as Agaricus marcescibilis in 1893 before being reclassified in 2008 following molecular phylogenetics studies that reorganized the traditional genus Coprinus. This small saprobic fungus produces grey-brown hygrophanous caps that fade to whitish when dry, with white gills that darken to brown with age, and grows on nutrient-rich soils and decaying wood, particularly in urban green spaces. The species has a broad yet scattered distribution, with documented occurrences across Europe, North America, North Africa, and parts of Asia, and phylogenetic analysis indicates it diverged from Coprinopsis cinerea about 131 million years ago.

Taxonomy

Coprinopsis marcescibilis was originally described in 1893 by Max Britzelmayr as Agaricus marcescibilis. Molecular phylogenetics work revealed that Coprinus sensu lato (in the broad sense) was polyphyletic, so Redhead and colleages (2001) restricted Coprinus to the shaggy inkcap clade and segregated the remaining taxa into four genera—Coprinus sensu stricto (in the strict sense), Coprinopsis, Coprinellus and Parasola—all within Psathyrellaceae.

Comparative genomics analyses based on 2353 single‑copy orthologous genes confirm that C. marcescibilis forms a well‑supported clade with Coprinopsis cinerea, from which it diverged about 131 million years ago; this clade is distinct from the Coprinellus and Candolleomyces lineages sampled in the study.

In a multilocus rDNA phylogeny of coprophilous (dung-loving) Psathyrella and allied genera, Larsson and Örstadius (2008) recovered four major clades within Psathyrellaceae—Parasola, Coprinopsis, Lacrymaria/Spadiceae and Psathyrella—using combined ITS and LSU data. Agaricus marcescibilis fell within the Coprinopsis clade, sharing a pileipellis of short, cutis‑type hyphae and lack of clamp connections typical of that genus. On this basis they proposed the new combination Coprinopsis marcescibilis.

Description

The fruit body of Psathyrella marcescibilis is small, with a cap (pileus) 10–25 mm across.

Editorial summary

“Coprinopsis marcescibilis” enters the record as species of fungus. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Coprinopsis, marcescibilis and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical orientation to terminology and classification, particularly when read beside dated observations, specimens or technical literature. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1893, 2008, 2001—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Coprinopsis, marcescibilis and species.
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Why this record matters

“Coprinopsis marcescibilis” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Coprinopsis, marcescibilis and species provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 12, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q10498621. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1893, 2008 and 2001.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Coprinopsis marcescibilis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.