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

52 The North American Species of Pholiota
Stipe 2.5-3 cm long, 2.5-3 mm thick, equal, bright yellow, floccosesquamulose to the annular zone, pruinose above, staining rusty brown
from base up or where handled or where in contact with bases such as
KOH. Veil fibrillose, yellow.
Spores 6.5-7.5 x 4-4.5 (9 x 3.5) p, smooth, lacking an apical pore,
tawny in KOH, in Melzer's reagent merely yellowish; shape in face view
elliptic to oblong, in profile slightly bean-shaped.
Basidia 4-spored, 18-23 x 4.5-6 /,, narrowly clavate, yellow to claycolor in KOH (many sporulating basidia with dark rusty brown content
seen). Pleurocystidia none. Cheilocystidia abundant, flexuous-capitate as
in P. erinceella, 28-46 x 6-10 pu, bright yellow in KOH, thin-walled,
smooth, wall hyaline. Caulocystidia 30-60 x 8-14 pu, in shape similar to
cheilocystidia but head broader and often flattened, yellow to orange in
KOH.
Gill trama of subparallel to interwoven thin-walled hyphae bright
yellow in KOH, oleiferous hyphae orange-yellow; subhymenium not distinctive (very narrow and not gelatinous). Pileus cuticle a tangle of
hyphae 5-14 pu diam., the cells tubular to somewhat inflated but typically
more than 4 times longer than broad, pale tawny to pale cinnamon in
KOH, thin-walled, walls smooth to minutely roughened; terminal cells
somewhat cystidioid. Clamp connections present. All tissues inamyloid.
HABIT, HABITAT, AND DISTRIBUTION: Clustered on a log of Fagus,
Tahquamenon Falls State Park, Mich. June 29, 1953, Smith 41356 (type),
and from Oakland County, Smith 73247, 73269.
OBSERVATIONS: This species is close to P. curvipes but it at once distinguished in the field by the very bitter taste. From P. mnIltifolia which
has a bitter taste, it liffers in broad subdistant gills at maturity and by
having numerous caulocystidia over the tipper half of the stipe. We
seldom find P. curvipes cespitose. We assume that P. fagicola is not bitter.
It is described as having distant arcuate gills.
9. Pholiota squamulosa (Murr.) Kauffman, Amer. Journ. Bot. 13:
29. 1926.
GymnTopillis squamulosits Murrill, Nortll Amer. Fl. 10: 201. 1917
Illustrations: Text figs. 7-8.
Pileus 2 cm broad, convex, not fully expanding, uniformly ferruginous, gibbous, surface dry, finely squamulose. margin entire, concolorous.
Lamellae adnate, ferruginous to fulvous at maturity, crowded, broad,
plane, edges yellowish and somewhat crenulate.
Stipe 2 cm long, 2 mm thick, tapering downward, short, subconcolorous, fibrillose, rather tough.
Spores 8-9.5 X 4-5 pI, smooth, lacking an apical pore; in face view
ovate to elliptic, in profile slightly bean-shaped to obscurely inequilateral,
in KOH tawny to pale tawny, in Melzer's reagent nearly hyaline, walls
about 0.3 Ep thick.