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

Smith ~ Hesler

Pileus 6-12 cm latus, laete luteus, udus. Lamellae laete luteae, subdistantes. Stipes 8-10 cm longus, 8-17 mm crassus, sursum luteus, deorsum
sordide brunneus. Sporae 7-10 x 4-5.t. Pleurocystidia desunt. Velum
hyphorum crassotunicatum. Specimen typicum in Herb. Univ. Mich. conservatum est; legit prope Florence, Ore., 22 Nov. 1934, Smith 3590.
Pileus 6-12 cm broad, convex to plane or the disc somewhat depressed, in age the margin elevated, surface with patches of converging
fibrils particularly near the margin, glabrescent, viscid, "antimony-yellow"
to "yellow-ochre," becoming darker ("cinnamon-brown") on the disc,
margin faintly striate when moist, opaque after losing moisture. Context
rather thin, tapering gradually to the margin, watery yellow, rather
pliant; odor faintly fragrant, taste none.
Lamellae adnate or slightly adnexed, bright yellow, soon rusty (near
ochraceous-tawny), narrow, subdistant to close, edges even.
Stipe 8-10 cm long, 8-17 mm thick, yellow above, dark sordid-brown
below, appressed-fibrillose to subvelutinous, striate up to the fibrillose
ring, equal or apex flattened, base clavate-enlarged.
Spores (7) 8-10 x 4-5 I/, smooth, germ pore at apex evident but
apex not truncate; shape in face view ovate to subelliptic, in profile more
or less distinctly inequilateral varying toward elliptic, apiculus small and
inconspicuous; color in KOH golden-fulvous to fulvous, in Melzer's
reagent distinctly tawny red (somewhat dextrinoid); wall about 0.3 /i
thick.
Basidia 4-spored, 22-30 x 6.5-8,u, subclavate to utriform, yellowish
in KOH and in Melzer's reagent. Pleurocystidia none. Cheilocystidia
25-38 x 6.5-10 /,, irregularly clavate or apex with one or more apical
to sublateral protuberances, utriform or fusoid-ventricose to inflatedpedicellate, walls thin but in some cells (of all types) with pale cinnamon
walls as revived in KOH. Caulocystidia none.
Gill trama of floccose hyphae, cells broad (to 15 /p) and greatly
elongated; walls thin, ochraceous to pallid in KOH, smooth; subhymenium a thin subcellular (cut ends of hyphae?) non-gelatinous layer
pale yellow to pallid in KOH. Pileus cutis with 3 distinct features: 1)
over the surface occurs a thin wheft of interwoven non-gelatinous hyphae
3-5 u diam. with walls thin to slightly thickened (~ 0.3 /,) and bright
rusty brown in KOH, in Melzer's reagent merely yellowish. 2) a thick
pellicle of gelatinous hyphae (their outline indistinct), yellowish, often
encrusted, and 2-4,u diam., the layer yellowish in KOH. 3) the hypodermial zone of compactly arranged ochraceous to ochraceous-rustv
hyphae with walls non-gelatinous and smooth to encrusted. Context
hyphae interwoven, the cells inflated; with smooth, ochraceous to paler,
thin to slightly thickened walls. Surface of stipe with a dense covering
of brown slender thick-walled hyphae with frequent clamps. All hyphae
inamyloid.
HABIT, HABITAT, AND DISTRIBUTION: Caespitose or subcaespitose, on
rotton log, Oregon, November, Smith 3590, type.