The North American species of Pholiota, by Alexander H. Smith and L. R. Hesler.

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The North American Species of Pholiota

tinctive body (inclusion) dark dingy brown as revived in Melzer's
reagent; projecting 8-12 u/, some cells hyaline or only weakly colored.
Cheilocystidia 23-35 x 4-9 /x, clavate, clavate-irregular, fusoid-ventricose,
ventricose-capitate or merely subfusoid, wall thin smooth and hyaline,
content homogeneous, typically hyaline. Caulocystidia as clavate endcells of surface hyphae 30-75 X 4-7 u, hyaline, thin-walled, smooth,
content homogeneous.
Gill trama with a floccose central strand of subparallel hyphae
hyaline to pale tan (in KOH), walls thin and smooth; subhymenium a
rather wide gelatinous band of narrow hyaline interwoven hyphae.
Pileus cutis a thick pellicle of gelatinous hyphae 2-5 pF diam., ochraceous
to pale dingy brownish or hyaline in KOH; lypodermial layer scarcely
differentiated. Context hyphae with slightly thickened refractive walls
(in KOH) showing as a pair of double lines, smooth; hyphal cells considerably inflated. Clamp connections present. All hyphae inamyloid.
HABIT, HABITAT, AND DISTRIBUTION: Caespitose on log of Betula lutea,
Rock River, Mich. Sept. 25, 1929. Coll. A. H. Smith (type).
OBSERVATIONS: This species was reported as P. subsquarrosa by
Kauffman and Smith (1933). However, P. subsquarrosa is still not clearly
defined by European authors, so at this time it appears best to report on
the 1929 collection as a separate species. It is readily distinct from P.
squarroso-adiposa by its narrower more oblong spores and velvety mycelium at the base of the stipe. In addition the gills are not yellow at first.
It is at once distinguished from P. connata in the field by the scaly stipe
and flanged stipe-base.
We have one collection, Smith 73596 on Abies wood from near
Kellog, Idaho, which has the basal mycelium of P. subvelutipes but its
gills are subdistant and when young yellow. This points up, again, the
pattern of variability in the group and the various combinations of
characters found to exist when large numbers of collections are studied.
The Kellog collection may represent a distinct species but at present we
do not care to describe it.
111. Pholiota abietis sp. nov.
Illustrations: Text figs. 233-236; pls. 53-54.
Pilcus 4-9(15) cm latus, late convexus, glutinosus, squamosus lutteus,
squamis fulvis. Contextus subluteus. Lamellae pallidae demum cinnamomeac, adnatae, latae, confertae. Stipes 8-12 cm longuts, 9-15 mm
crassus, solidus, aequalis sed ad basin submarginatus, deorsum squamosus;
squamis siccis. Sporae 5.5-7(7.5) X 3.5-4 p, leves. Pleurocystidia: 1) 32-46
X 8-12 p, clavata vel mucronata, subbadia. 2) Chrysocystidia 26-42 X
6-12 u. Caulocystidia (20)30-70 x 6-12(20) p, versiformia. Specimen
typicum in Herb. Univ. Mich. conservatum est; legit prope Joyce, Wash.
24 Sept. 1935. Smith 2585.
Pileus 4-9 (15) cm broad, broadly convex with an incurved margin,