Pileus 3-6 x 2-5 mm when still closed, subglobose or ovoid, veil at primordia sepia, soon paler grey to almost white when expanded; then pileus up to 15 mm wide. Veil breaking up in small, hairy flocks. Lamellae, L = c. 20, l = 1-3, free, first whitish, soon grey-brown to dark grey, finally blackish. Stipe up to 30 x 0.5-1 mm, white, greyish white, almost glabrous; base somewhat woolly hairy.
  Spores [60,3,2] 7.0-10.2 x 6.7-9.0 x 6.4-7.8 µm, subglobose, often more or less conical to the apex, sometimes somewhat quadrangular, medium red-brown (about Mu. 2.5 YR 3/6; K. & W. 8E8) with central, c. 1.3-1.5 µm wide germ pore; Q = 1.00-1.18, av. Q = 1.08; av. L = 8.1, av. B = 7.5 µm. Basidia 16-32 x 9-11 µm, 4-spored, surrounded by 5-7(-8) pseudoparaphyses. Pleurocystidia 60-105 x 12-24 µm, oblong, (sub)cylindrical or utriform. Cheilocystidia 45-100 x 15-30 µm, oblong, ellipsoid, (sub)cylindrical or (narrowly) utriform. Elements of veil thin-walled, sparsely diverticulate, 2-10 µm wide; walls hyaline or slightly greyish yellow, less than 0.3 µm thick. Clamp-connections present.

Habitat & distribution

  Solitary or a few together in small groups; in lawns, often on bare places. Probably not rare; found in one locality only, but there in several places.

Remarks

  Microscopically this species is close to Coprinus gonophyllus but differs in distinctly smaller, much more fragile basidiocarps and the more globose, slightly larger spores with rarely truncate apex. The habitat also is different, as it does not grow in burnt places, but in lawns among grass (though often also on bare places in the lawns). The spores of Coprinus epichloeus resemble somewhat those of Coprinus phaeosporus, but that species, like all other species in subsect. Alachuani with subglobose spores, has thick-walled velar elements.