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

Smith ~ Hesler

97

"buckthorn brown," nearly subdistant, medium broad, edges rough
(serrulate), many lamellulae present.
Stipe 4-5 cm long, 6-10 mm thick, somewhat flattened from pressure of crowding, whitish, fibrillose-scaly up to ring, naked above, scales
"chamois," surface dry, interior hollow. Veil fibrillose, copious, yellow,
leaving an evanescent, fibrillose flaring ring.
Spores 5.5-7.5 x 3.5-4 (4.5) pi, dull tawny in KOH, paler and more
ochraceous in Melzer's reagent, apex in many spores somewhat truncate
from a distinct apical pore, in face view oblong to elliptic or some ovate,
in profile slightly bean-shaped to oblong or obscurely inequilateral, wall
relatively thin (0.25 pA +).
Basidia 18-23 (24-35) x 5-7 pt, variable in length, 4-spored, clavate
hyaline in KOH, yellowish in Melzer's reagent. Pleurocystidia 23-42 x
6-9 bt, clavate-mucronate to fusoid-ventricose, rarely merely clavate, apex
subacute to obtuse, wall smooth thin and hyaline, content as revived in
KOH with the typical hyaline refractive inclusion of chrysocystidia, refractive body merely yellowish in Melzer's reagent. Cheilocystidia 20-32
x 5-9 ut, utriform, fusoid-ventricose to subfusoid, lhyaline to yellowish in
KOH, walls smooth, thin, hyaline, content homogeneous. Caulocystidia
23-35 x 5-9 p,, clavate to narrowly subfusoid, usually remaining agglutinated to stipe tissue in KOH mounts, thin-walled, hyaline to yellowish
and content homogeneous.
Gill trama of a floccose central strand of parallel hyphae 5-15 tu
diam.; walls thin, smooth, hyaline to yellowish, somewhat refractive;
subhymenium of narrow gelatinous to subgelatinous hyphae hyaline
in KOH. Pileus cutis a gelatinous pellicle of mostly non-gelatinous
hyphae 3-6 p, diam. with very pale ochraceous smooth walls; hypodermium of floccose hyphae with smooth to asperulate darker ochraceousbrown walls, hyphae 4-10 pu diam. Context hyphae hyaline to ochraceous,
smooth, the hyphal cells inflated greatly in age. Stipe hyphae perfectly
hyaline in KOH except for the agglutinated caulocystidia and the narrow
cells which bear them, both ochraceous in KOH. All hyphae inamyloid.
Clamp connections present.
HABIT, HABITAT, AND DISTRIBUTION: Densely caespitose on sawdust.
Anderson County, Tenn. Oct. 31, 1943. Hesler 15908 type.
OBSERVATIONS: This is a most interesting species in a number of
ways, particularly in that it is intermediate between sect. Pholiota and
Sect. Kuehneromyces since the spores, at least many of them are sufficiently truncate to place the species in the latter group, and the species
is clearly related to P. veris. The distinctive field features include the
densely cespitose habit, its whitish fibrillose scaly pileus, the yellowish
scales, yellow gills and white stipe which does not darken in KOH in
the apical area.