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

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The North American Species of Pholiota

cum in Herb. Univ. of Mich. coservatu7n est; legit prope Trinidad,
California, 3 Dec. 1956, Smith 56192.
Pileus 3-8 cm broad, convex, expanding to plane, margin incurved
and often appendiculate with veil fragments, color dark vinaceous brown
("Natal-brown") young, in age bay on disc and paler reddish brown on
margin, viscid, at first decorated with concentric zones of pallid to yellowish-pallid veil remnants. Context white to pallid; odor distinctly fragrant,
taste mild, no color changes observed.
Lamellae adnate becoming subdecurrent, pallid young, dull cinnamon-brown in age, close, only moderately broad, edges even.
Stipe 4-6 cm long, 3-7 mm thick, equal, bulbous from white mycelium at base, apex yellowish to the fibrillose annulus, pallid to grayish
fibrillose or subscaly below to the base which darkens to rusty brown
within, cortex pallid below at very first. Veil heavy, fibrillose, leaving a
semi-persistent ring.
Spores 6-8.5 x 4-5 u. smooth, apical pore present but apex not
truncate, shape in face view elliptic to ovate, in profile, slightly beanshaped to obscurely inequilateral, dull rusty brown in KOH, slowly fading to ochraceous tawny, in Melzer's reagent merely slightly more cinnamon, wall about 0.25 U/ thick.
Basidia 25-30 X 6-7 pi, 4-spored, clavate, hyaline to yellowish in
Melzer's reagent. Pleurocystidia 45-75 x 10-15 Lu, fuisoid-ventricose, apex
subacute to obtuse and showing a tendency to proliferate, walls thin to
1.5 p. thick in upper part of ventricose portion; content yellowish or rarely
dingy amber-brown, colloidal; wall smooth, colorless (somewhat greenishhyaline) in KOH. Cheilocystidia 33-52 x 8-12 pu, obtusely fusoid to
fusoid-ventricose, mostly thin-walled throughout and content similar to
that of pleurocystidia. Caulocystidia 34-71 x 10-20 /L, clavate, subpyriform, fusoid or fusoid-ventricose, utriform, etc., thin-walled or wall up to
1.5 (2) p/ thick; content homogeneous.
Gill trama a central area of floccose subparallel to interwoven
hyphae witll long or short cells, the cells (3) 5-15 pL diam., or more (as
they inflate); walls thin, smooth, hyaline in KOH; subllymenium a gelatinous layer of somewhat divergent hyphae 2-3 pL diam. and hyaline in
KOH. Pileus cutis a thick gelatinous pellicle of narrow (2-3 /u) hyaline
gelatinous hypihae; hypodermium of dark rusty brown hyphae with heavy
incrustations of pigment, cells 4-10 ), diam. Context hyphae inflated,
walls thin, smooth, hyaline in KOH. Clamp connections absent. All
hyphae inamyloid.
HABIT, HABITAT, AND DISTRIBUTION: On pine and redwood logs, Idaho
and California, November-December.
OBSERVATIONS: Among the species with thick-walled cystidia P.
rubronigra can be recognized by its fragrant odor, some pleurocystidia
with walls up to 1.5 p. thick, very dark reddish brown color over the disc
of the pileus as dried, and lack of brown squamules over the lower part
of the stipe. In the dried state the whole basidiocarp of P. decorata is