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

Smith ~ Hesler

121

Spores 5-7 x 4.5-4.8 X 4-4.5 /, smooth, distinctly truncate (truncation up to 1.5 u, broad), broadly ovate to elliptic-truncate in face view
obscurely inequilateral to subelliptic in profile, pale cinnamon to pale
tawny in KOH, paler in Melzer's reagent than in KOH, wall relatively
thin (estimated at less than 0.25 /u).
Basidia 17-22 X 5-6 aL, narrowly clavate to subcylindric, 4-spored,
hyaline to yellowish in KOH and Melzer's sol. Pleurocystidia none.
Cheilocystidia 20-27 x 3-7 p,, ventricose-rostrate but small, varying to
merely fusoid-ventricose or with odd shapes but apex obtuse, thin-walled,
hyaline in KOH and Melzer's reagent, smooth, content homogeneous.
Caulocystidia none located.
Gill trama of subparallel non-gelatinous hyphae with broad short
to elongate cells, walls hyaline to yellowish in KOH and Melzer's
reagent, and showing only a slight tendency to thickening (typically
thin-walled); subhymenium narrow and indistinct. Pileus cutis a gelatinous layer of smooth hyaline hyphae 2-4 u diam. appressed and the
layer up to 8-12 hyphae deep (but usually thinner as seen in revived
material); hypodermial region of yellowish to hyaline hyphae which are
nongelatinous and cells distinctly inflated, the hyphal walls thin to
slightly thickened but not measurable (less than 0.4 pj), yellowish in
Melzer's reagent. Context hyphae yellowish to nearly hyaline in KOH
and in Melzer's reagent; oleiferous hyphae rare. Clamp connections
present.
HABIT, HABITAT, AND DISTRIBUTION: On rotton logs of Populus trichocarpa, Clearwater River, Olympic Mountains, Washington, May 9, 1939,
Smith 13260 type.
OBSERVATIONS: The thick, superior, striate annulus collapses and disappears, but when present it is quite distinct from that of P. vernalis.
The stipe below the annulus is not squamulose with recurved squamules
as in P. mutabilis but rather is coated with pale buff veil fibrils or these
aggregating into patches. These differences in addition to the habitat
distinguish the species from P. mutabilis, but the aspect of the dried
basidiocarps of these two is very similar.
Stirps Depauperata
This "stirps" may be more of an illusion than a reality as far as
Pholiota is concerned since the dark gills suggest purple-brown spores.
It is quite possible that the species belongs in Psilocybe but the data
needed to justify making such a transfer are lacking. We do not know
the color of the spore deposit.
56. Pholiota depauperata (Singer & Smith) comb. nov.

Kuehneromyces depauperatus Singer & Smith, Mycologia 38: 513. 1946.