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

The North American Species of Pholiota

glabrous or obscurely fibrillose from veil patches, margin incurved. Context fairly thick in large specimens, pale yellow to bright yellow, soon
sordid rusty brown where injured, odor slight, taste bitter.
Lamellae adnexed, rounded behind, concolorous or "pinard yellow"
(paler yellow than pileus), narrow, crowded, soon spotted or stained
rusty brown to orange-brown from injury, edges crenulate, often with
yellow or reddish-yellow glandular drops.
Stipe (2) 3-7 (10) cm. long, (2) 4-10 mm thick, yellow, floccose,
fibrillose to the apical zone or nearly glabrous finally, equal or slightly
thickened at the base, solid, tough. Veil yellowish, fibrillose, evanescent.
Spores 6.5-9 x 4.5-5 (5.5) /u, ovate to elliptic in face view, somewhat
inequilateral to obscurely bean-shaped in profile, smooth, rich tawny in
KOH, germ pore obscure and very minute.
Basidia 25-30 x 5-7 Fu, narrowly clavate, yellow revived in KOH,
4-spored or occasionally apparently two-spored. Pleurocystidia present as
brown basidioles 24-42 x 4-7 fu. Cheilocystidia (20) 30-50 (75) x (4)
5-9 tu, filamentose-capitate, liyaline to yellow in KOH or some rusty
brown, in clusters, thin-walled, smooth, rarely with a secondary septum
below the head (shaped much as in those of P. curvipes). Caulocystidia
none found.
Gill trama interwoven to subparallel, hyphae 3-12 u/ in diam. in
broadest part, walls thin and yellowish in KOH, hyphal cells inflated
only in age; subhymenium of narrow non-gelatinous hyphae. Pileus
cuticle of non-gelatinous radially arranged hyphae with thin smooth walls
4-12 J (diam. and the terminal cells merely tapered to the apex. Hyphae
of context interwoven, cells thin-walled, yellow in KOH and in Melzer's
reagent many small needle-like crystals often grouped into burr-like
masses in the mounts, walls all inamyloid. Clamp connections present.
HABIT, HABITAT AND DISTRIBUTION: On logs, sawdust and decaying
wood of deciduous trees of ash, aspen, maple etc. New York, North
Carolina, Missouri, Michigan and Canada, June to October.
OBSERVATIONS: The narrow, crowded, spotted and stained lamellae
together with the yellow to tawny hues of the pileus, and the bitter taste
are a good set of field characters. It is close to P. curvipes but the latter
has broader more distant gills and a mild taste. We do not emphasize the
lack of caulocystidia as observed so far as an important feature since in
Smith 67009 with pilei up to 7 cm wide they were present as clusters of
clavate thin-walled cells. The taste of this collection was not recorded.
A yellow pigment dissolves into the KOH mounting medium and
in Melzer's the presence of pale dextrinoid burr-like to star-like aggregations of needle-like crystals is unique in our experience. This species is
the most "Gymnopilus-like" of the section as far as pigmentation is concerned, and is likely to be confused with that genus until the spores are
examined.
Flammula expansa was considered identical with this species by