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

Smith ~ Hesler

111

Pileus 0.8-3.5 cm broad, margin incurved at first, pileus becoming
broadly convex or remaining obtusely umbonate, surface glabrous, lubricous when fresh and moist, hygrophanous, pale "Buckthorn brown"
(dark clay color) to cinnamon brown and fading to ochraceous tawny
or finally pinkish buff, margin faintly striate before fading. Context
thin, watery, concolorous with surface; odor and taste mild; no reaction
with FeSO4.
Lamellae depressed-adnate and seceding, dingy butterscotch-color
young, dull rusty brown in age, close, broad, edges minutely eroded.
Stipe 3-6 cm long, 1.5-2.5 mm at apex, equal or nearly so, dark rusty
brown to blackish below, pale watery buckthorn-brown at apex, glabrous
and naked or apex faintly pruinose, with a few faint fibrillose streaks
below. Veil absent on all specimens observed.
Spores 7-9.5 x 4-5 (5.3) pu, ovate to elliptic or some nearly oblong
in face view, in profile view ovate to obscurely inequilateral; smooth,
relatively thick-walled (up to 0.5 /u); apical pore distinct but apex mostly
slightly truncate; pale dull cinnamon to tawny in KOH, not changing
color appreciably in Melzer's reagent.
Basidia 18-22 X 7.5-9 pu, 4-spored, clavate, hyaline in KOH, yellowish in Melzer's reagent. Pleurocystidia none. Cheilocystidia abundant,
27-50 x 4-10 p., narrowly fusoid to fusoid-ventricose, tapered from a
basal inflated area 5-10 p diam. to a neck 4-6 p. diam. midway to apex
and apex acute to subacute, thin-walled, smooth, hyaline in KOH. Caulocystidia thin-walled, scattered or in groups, 36-50 X 9-15 pi and clavate
or ventricose (6-12 pu) at base and tapered to an acute to subacute apex,
neck often flexuous, portion below ventricose part often with ochraceous
walls in KOH, otherwise walls hyaline.
Gill trama parallel to subparallel, the hyphal cells short and 5-10 p.
wide, walls thin to slightly thickened but middle lamella not clearly
evident, not gelatinous; subhymenium indistinct, not gelatinous; walls
of hyphae nearly hyaline to dingy ochraceous in KOH and slightly more
ochraceous brown in Melzer's reagent. Pileus cutis a thin layer of tubular
hyaline subgelatinous hyphae 2.5-4 p. diam., walls smooth; hypodermial
region of non-gelatinous thin-walled hyphae with pale dingy ochraceous
walls in KOH, the cells inflated to 22 pi more or less, toward the gill
trama the hyphae with slightly thicker walls but middle lamella not
showing distinctly; all hyphae inamyloid (ochraceous orange to paler in
Melzer's reagent). Clamp connections present.
HABIT, HABITAT, AND DISTRIBUTION: Caespitose on conifer logs, Idaho,
June and July; Trueblood 18 (MICH); Smith 65040 type, 65059, 65225,
65323.
OBSERVATIONS: The absence of a veil is a distinctive feature, but
buttons should be checked. The thin gelatinous pellicle may become
obliterated in age and this may cause some trouble in placing some
collections. The spores are distinctly larger than in P. atripes, the latter
has a distinct veil, and its pilei are paler and yellower as dried.