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

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The North American Species of Pholiota

demum luteae. Stipes 6-10(18) cm longus, 4-10(25) mm crassus, sparse
fibrillosus, sursum pallidus vel lutens, deorsum demum fllvuls. Sporae
7.5-11 X 4.5-5.5.t. Pleurocystidia nulla. Specimen typicum in Herb. Univ.
Mich. conservatum est; legit prope Pen Basin, Landmark, Idaho, 5 Aug.
1958 Smith 59660.
Pileus (3) 4-12 (15) cm broad, convex, expanding to broadly convex
or nearly plane, margin often wavy to lobed, viscid, glabrous except for
faint veil remnants along the margin, disc orange-buff, pale yellow to
watery dingy ochraceous-tawny, near "warm-buff" or brighter where
faded, often with a watery zone along the incurved margin. Context
rather thick and firm, yellowish; odor faintly fragrant, often suggestive
of green corn; taste mild; with FeSO4 bright green.
Lamellae close, adnate to adnexed, yellowish when young, pale
rusty-brown in age, narrow to moderately broad, thin, edges even, color
change when bruised none or at times slowly orange.
Stipe (4) 6-10 (18) cm long, 4-10 (25) mm thick, equal or narrowed
below, solid, surface pallid to yellowish and silky above, with a faint
evanescent zone of fibrils from the thin veil, lower part fibrillose-striate,
becoming dark rusty brown from base upward, veil pallid to buff.
Spores 7.5-11 x 4.5-5.5 pu, smooth, apical pore distinct but apex not
truncate; in shape narrowly ovate to nearly elliptic, in profile somewhat
inequilateral to narrowly oval; in KOH dingy pale tawny becoming more
ochraceous on standing, in Melzer's reagent moderately dextrinoid
(tawny-red) wall about 0.3 /u thick.
Basidia 20-25 (30) x 5-6 /L, 4-spored, clavate, yellow in KOH and
also in Melzer's reagent. Pleurocystidia none. Cheilocystidia (20) 30-41
x 6-9 /t, clavate to somewhat fusoid-ventricose but mostly irregular in
outline, smooth, thin-walled, content homogeneous. Caulocystidia versiform, 25 x 10 /u, or 28-47 x 4-9 tu, some occasionally more elongatesubclavate, hyaline to yellowish in KOH, walls thin and smooth, content
homogeneous.
Gill trama a central area of floccose subparallel hyphae with short
cells becoming inflated in age or cells more elongate toward gill edge,
walls thin, smooth and pale yellow in KOH; subhymenium cellular, 2-5
cells, deep, not gelatinous. Pileus cutis a gelatinous layer of yellowish
hyphae 3-5 u diam. and having incrustations of pigments over them,
grading evenly into a zone of wider (5-10 uA) hyphae with smooth to
heavily incrusted walls tawny in KOH and orange to red in Melzer's sol.
Context hyphae of inflated cells with thin smooth pale yellowish walls
in KOH. Clamp connections present. All hyphae inamyloid.
HABIT, HABITAT, AND DISTRIBUTION: Caespitose on conifer and hardwood trees, at the base of stumps or attached to buried wood, Michigan,
Idaho, the Pacific Northwest and Northern California, August-November.
OBSERVATIONS: This resembles the type variety, but differs in its
fragrant odor, its more yellowish flesh, and more poorly developed veil.
The stipe tends to become greatly enlarged in age.