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

364

The North American Species of Pholiota

OBSERVATIONS: The tawny olive pileus, white context, white young
lamellae which become greenish yellow, subradicate stipe which is white
above, and the large, clavate caulocystidia in tufts all characterize this
species. When collected, it appeared to be a form of P. spumosa, but its
microscopic characters separate it.
198. Pholiota brunneodisca (Pk.) comb. nov.
Flanmmula brunneodisca Peck, New York State Mus. Bull. 167: 42. 1913.
Gymnopilus brunncodiscus (Pk.) Murrill, North Amer. Flora 10: 199.
1917.
Pileus caespitose, 2.5-6 cm broad, broadly convex or nearly plane,
umbonate, ochraceous-yellow, center brown, viscid, cuticle separable,
slightly innately fibrillose. Context thin, white.
Lamellae adnate with a decurrent tooth, pale yellow, becoming
rusty brown, thin, close, rather narrow.
Stipe 2-3 cm long, 4-6 mm thick, pale yellow within and without,
paler at the apex, glabrous, equal, solid.
Spores 5-7 X 3-3.5 (4) Fu, smooth, apical pore present but very
minute, apex not truncate; shape in face view ovate to subelliptic, in
profile subovate to obscurely inequilateral; in KOH ochraceous tawny, in
Melzer's reagent mostly about the same color but one or two in a microscopic field seen to have dark violet brown coagulated contents; wall
about 0.25 u thick.
Basidia 4-spored, 20-25(27) x 5-6.5 /u, yellowish in KOH or in
Melzer's reagent, mostly obscurely utriform when immature. Pleurocystidia 38-52 x 8-15 aF, fusoid-ventricose, neck with somewhat undulating walls and apex obtuse to rounded, wall thin, smooth or some with
adhering coagulated amorphous material, content often amber-brown to
ochraceous but fading out to pale yellowish or hyaline. Cheilocystidia
30-48 X 6-12 /x, subfusoid with obtuse apex, utriform or clavate, walls
thin, content in KOH usually ochraceous. Caulocystidia not studied.
Gill trama a central area of floccose subinterwoven hyphae yellowish
to hyaline in KOH, hyphae 4-9 u broad, walls thin and smooth; subhymenium gelatinous, of tangled, narrow (~ 2 u/) hyaline hyphae.
Pileus cutis a thick gelatinous pellicle of narrow (1.5-3 /u) hyaline to
yellowish interwoven hyphae; hypodermial region of rusty ochraceous
floccose hyphae some with encrusted walls. Context hyphae paler (poorly
revived). Clamp connections present. All hyphae inamyloid.
HABIT, HABITAT, AND DISTRIBUTION: Caespitose, on soil, probably
growing from a buried root, Massachusetts, October. Type studied.
OBSERVATIONS: This species appears to be close to P. inocua but is
the only Pholiota known to us with the curious almost amyloid (violetbrown) inclusion filling or nearly filling some spores.