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

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The North American Species of Pholiota

striate when wet. Context rather fragile, thin, white, darker when wet;
odor and taste mild.
Lamellae adnate to adnate-decurrent, at first white then dark yellowbrown ("Dresden brown" to "snuff-brown"), medium broad, close,
reaching margin of pileus, edges white-denticulate.
Stipe 3-5 cm long, 2-4 mm thick, whitish, dingy in age, dry, silky,
striate, equal, usually curved, spongy then hollow. Veil delicate, webby,
white, forming an apical, persistent to subfugaceous annulus, often
brownish from spores.
Spores 6-7.5 x 4-4.5 p, (6-9 x 3.8-4.5 /, in some caps), smooth;
wall 0.4 Jt thick (+), apex obscurely truncate from a small apical pore;
in face view ovate to elliptic, in profile obscurely inequilateral, occasionally a spore seen with a lateral bump; tawny in KOH, slightly more
cinnamon in Melzer's.
Basidia 4-spored, 18-23 (26) x 5-7 /J, hyaline in KOH and pale
yellow in Melzer's reagent. Pleurocystidia abundant 25-46 X 6-9 /u,
clavate-rostrate to mucronate, the neck often as long or longer than the
enlarged portion in old specimens, walls thin, hyaline, smooth, content
homogeneous, cystidium yellowish and with homogeneous content in
Melzer's reagent. Cheilocystidia 28-44 x 4-9 uL, ventricose near base and
with a long neck 3-4 /t wide in some, and ending in a subacute apex,
wall in neck usually flexuous, thin, hyaline in KOH or Melzer's. Caulocystidia 33-58 x 6-11 /L, clavate to obscurely fusoid-ventricose because of
the irregular wavy walls and variously spaced protrusions, some with an
acute apex and the neck back of it about 2 p diam., walls thin and hyaline
and smooth.
Gill trama of hyphae subparallel interwoven, cells often short and
up to 16 u. diam., walls thin and hyaline in KOH to slightly brownishochraceous, yellowish in Melzer's reagent; subhymenium indistinct at
first, finally cellular in age, not gelatinous. Pileus trama with a thin cutis
of somewhat gelatinous hyphae tubular and 2.5-4 /u diam., hyaline and
appressed; hypodermium of greatly inflated hyphae (cells 10-20.u)
hyaline in KOH and walls about 1 Lu thick with the middle lamella evident in mounts revived in KOH. Context hyphae floccose-interwoven,
hyaline in KOH and pale yellow in Melzer's, 8-15.x diam. Hyphae of
stipe apex hyaline in KOH, walls smooth. Clamp connections present.
HABIT, HABITAT, AND DISTRIBUTION: On hardwood logs and chips,
Tennessee, May, Hesler 20814, type; Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mts. Nat'l.
Park, May 16, 1953.
OBSERVATIONS: This is a most distinctive species by reason of the
broad close gills, abundant pleurocystidia, pale colors, and lack of a
positive KOH reaction in the hyphae of the upper part of the stipe. In
this genus this feature is almost always correlated with the absence of
darkening in the stipe as the latter ages. P. albo-olivascens appears to be
most closely related to P. veris.
One of the interesting features of our study of this species is that