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

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The North American Species of Pholiota

Gymnopilus lentus (Fr.) Murrill, North Amer. Fl. 10: 204. 1917.
Dryophila lenta (Fr.) Quelet, Enchir, Fung. p. 70. 1886.
Illustrations: Text figs. 466; 467-470; pls. lib, 25a, 90.
Pileus 3-7 (10) cm broad, convex-hemispheric to convex, finally
expanded, whitish to pallid, at times "pinkish-buff," or smoky gray, the
disc becoming slightly darker ("avellaneous or even yellowish"), viscid to
glutinous, with scattered, white fibrillose-squamulose scales from the
broken veil, and often for a long time appendiculate from veil remnants,
glabrescent. Context white, firm; odor and taste mild.
Lamellae adnate, or with a decurrent tooth, white, then gray-tawny
or grayish brown or "clay-color," close, rather narrow to meidum broad,
abruptly narrowed in front, edges even to fimbriate.
Stipe 3-8 (12) cm long, 4-12 mm thick, white above, brownish at the
base, fibrillose, apex white-mealy, equal or sub-bulbous, solid or spongy.
Veil wlite, copious, cortinate, leaving an evanescent annulus.
Spores 5.5-7 x 3.5-4.5 ji, smooth, apical Xore minute, in face view
elliptic to oblong, in profile slightly bean-shaped to subelliptic, in KOH
more or less ochraceous tawny, in Melzer's reagent ochraceous, wall relatively thin (~ 0.2 u/).
Basidia 18-23 x 5-6 /x, yellowisl in Melzer's reagent, in KOH
hyaline or nearly so, almost narrowly elliptic or some slightly ventricose
before sporulating, varying to obscurely clavate. Pleurocystidia 42-60 (65)
x 8-14 /,, fusoid-ventricose, apex obtuse, wall thin and hyaline, content
homogeneous, hyaline in KOH (in well dried material). Cheilocystidia
26-30 X 7-10,u, broadly subfusoid, and 28-42 x 9-13 /-, thin-walled,
hyaline in KOH, smooth. Caulocystidia scattered or in tufts on a gelatinous "subhymenium," 25-100 x (-) 5-18 /J, fusoid-ventricose with
subacute apex, utriform or clavate or clavate-mucronate, thin-walled or
wall slightly thickened (less than 0.5 /i), content homogeneous and
hlyaline ("empty").
Gill trama a central area of floccose thin-walled smooth hyaline
hyphae parallel to subparallel and with the cells greatly inflated in age;
subllymenium of narrow gelatinous branched hyphae hyaline in KOH.
Pileus cutis a thick gelatinous layer of narrow hyaline to yellowish
hyphae 1-3 aJ diam., appearing to have numerous refractive cross walls
at times, smooth, loosely dispersed in gelatinous matrix; hypodermial
region of ochraceous to brownish ochraceous floccose hyphae 6-12 /u
diam. and with smooth to slightly encrusted walls. Context hyphae inflated, thin-walled, smooth, walls yellowish to hyaline in KOH. All
hyphae inamyloid. Clamp connections present.
HABIT, HABITAT, AND DISTRIBUTION: On humus, debris, or humus
charged soil, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Tennessee, Michigan, and
California, July-December; reported from New York to South Carolina
in the eastern United States by Murrill (1917).
OBSERVATIONS: The pallid color, small spores, medium sized pleuro