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

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The North American Species of Pholiota

34-47 x 7-10 /u walls thickened to about 1 /u and bright rusty brown,
with or without encrusting material.
Gill trama of subparallel hyphae with thin, smooth, yellowish walls
(in KOH) the cells elongate inflated 4-6,u wide becoming up to 15 /u;
subhymenium a very narrow non-gelatinous cellular zone (about 2 cells
deep). Pileus cutis a thick gelatinous layer of hyphae 2.5-6 /I diam.,
dispersed loosely in the matrix, the hyphae ochraceous to hyaline and
smooth to slightly incrusted; hypodermial zone not very distinct but
slightly more colored than the context, hyphae smooth, 4-12 /z diam.
Context hyphae with smooth, thin, pale greenish yellow walls in KOH,
hyphal cells inflated, some orange-rufous oleiferous hyphae present.
Clamp connections present. All hyphae inamyloid.
HABIT, HABITAT, AND DISTRIBUTION: Caespitose on logs and at the
base of trees and stumps of conifers and hardwood, Maine, Idaho and
Oregon, August-November.
OBSERVATIONS: The fragrant odor, pallid gills when young, small
spores, and utriform basidia appear to distinguish it. In some caps the
hypodermium is rusty orange but fades on standing. Odorless collections
of this variety appear to be identical with a collection of Flammnla
flavida sensu Konrad 8: Maublanc from Josserand, Lyons, France. Fries
described this species as having gills at first whitish, which fits our material. This is our common species on conifers in the Rocky Mountain
area.
It will probably always be a rather hopeless problem to deal with
the confusing literature on the "P. alnicola" problem on the one hand
and the variation of the fungus in nature on the other. We have simply
based our concept on excellent specimens from Europe which check with
ours in all respects including the well developed gelatinous epicutis of the
pileus which consists of a tangled mass of narrow yellowish to hyaline
hyphae. Moser (1955) gives the spores as 6-7 x 4-4.5 /j; obviously this
is not the same as Josserand's material. The odor in our specimens varies
from none to faintly fragrant.
We lhave also studied a collection by Lundell from Sweden which
Pilat annotated as F. alnicola. The following are our data on it. This
apparently is a variant of the same species as Josserand's collection, but
differing in the iodine reactions of the context hyphae and could possibly
be our var. graveolens. In the Lundell collection we assume the taste was
mild. There is no data on this character with the specimen:
Spores 7-9 X 4-5 L smooth, apical pore present but minute, shape in
face view ovate to elliptic, in profile somewhat inequilateral, color in
KOH ochraceous-tawny to duller pale tawny, in Melzer's reagent rusty
brown (dextrinoid); wall around 0.3 /u thick.
Basidia 4-spored, 22-26 x 6.5-8 /u, clavate, yellowish to hyaline in
KOH, not changing appreciably in Melzer's reagent. Pleurocystidia none.
Cheilocystidia mostly clavate, 26-34 x 7-10 /u, hyaline, smooth, content