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

Smith ~ Hesler

133

Stipe 5-7 cm long, 4-7 mm thick, flexuous, sometimes bulbous at
base, smooth above the ring, white with yellowish floccose scales below
the ring. Veil white to yellowish, membranous, leaving a distinct membranous annulus and at times pileus margin decorated with particles.
Spores 9-12 X 4.5-6,L, elliptic in face view, mostly obscurely inequilateral in profile; smooth, thick-walled (1.5,i +~), apex distinctly
truncate from an obvious apical pore; dull tawny to pale bister in KOH,
dull tawny in Melzer's reagent.
Basidia 26-33 x 7-9 u,, 4-spored, clavate, hyaline in KOH and
yellowish in Melzer's reagent. Pleurocystidia of two types: 1) chrysocystidia 20-35 x 8-12 E,, clavate to mucronate, thin-walled, hyaline in
KOH, with a highly refractive body or globule which in Melzer's reagent
merely stains ochraceous; 2) giant leptocystidia 50-75 x 10-20,e, fusoidventricose with rounded to obtuse apices, wall thin and delicate (readily
collapsing and difficult to revive), content homogeneous. Cheilocystidia
numerous, 26-58 x (7) 10-15 eu and broadly utriform, some giant cells
like the hymenial leptocystidia also present. Caulocystidia none found.
Gill trama of hyaline thin-walled hyphae subparallel-interwoven,
the cells tubular at first and 3-6.u diam., inflating to 5-12,u diam. at
least near pileus trama, yellowish in Melzer's reagent; subhymenium
narrow and indistinct to slightly gelatinous as revived in KOH. Pileus
cutis with a thick gelatinous pellicle of loosely interwoven hyaline hyphae
3-4,u diam., imbedded in slime, walls smooth and sharply defined as
revived in KOH; hypodermium of pale tan non-gelatinous thin-walled
hyphae the cells inflated to 12,e or more, walls smooth but slightly
colored. Context hyphae hyaline, 5-10,u diam., or becoming more inflated, somewhat gelatinous in subhymenial area. All hyphae inamyloid.
Clamp connections present.
HABIT, HABITAT, AND DISTRIBUTION: On soil under fir, near Willamette, Oregon, Nov. 16, 1947, Sipe 1059 type.
OBSERVATIONS: This is a very distinctive species closely related to
P. albivelata but with larger spores. The basidiocarps are very similar in
basic aspect, but there are major microscopic differences as is readily
seen by comparing the descriptions. Sipe's notes clearly indicate the
spores as cinnamon, and the gills as becoming cinnamon from the spores,
otherwise one would immediately place the species in Stropharia where
the combination of chrysocystidia and leptocystidia in the hymenium is
by no means unique. The annulus is slightly more flocculose than that
of P. albivelata and tends to be yellowish. We cannot state positively that
caulocystidia are lacking, though we could find none on the material
available for examination. We take pleasure in naming this species for
the well known Oregon naturalist Dr. Frank P. Sipe, the collector.
62. Pholiota albivelata Murrill, Mycologia 4: 260. 1912.
Illustrations: Text figs. 78-80; p1. 24.