The North American Species of Pholiota

119. Pholiota virgata sp. nov.

Illustrations: Text figs. 259-261.

Pileus 3-10 cm, latus, demum late convexus, viscidus, glaber, luteobrunneus. Contextus pallidus. Lamellae confertae, latae, adnatae, pallidae bubalinae. Stipes 4-5.5 cm longus, 6-10 (12) mm crassus, pallidus subfibrillosus. Sporae (5.5) 6-7 (7.5) x 3.5-4 (4.5) µ. Pleurocystidia 48-67 x 10-14 µ, fusoide-ventricosa; tunica 0.5-0.75 µ crassus. Specimen typicum in Herb. Univ. Mich. conservatum est; legit prope Santa Fe, New Mexico. Aug. 1957. Chas. Barrows 542.

Pileus 3-10 cm broad, convex, expanding more or less wavy, buff-brown to near tawny-olive, margin paler (yellowish-brown), virgate, slimy to viscid, margin even. Context pallid; taste insipid.

Lamellae adnate then emarginate, pale-buff to deep-buff then dull yellow-brown, close, medium broad.

Stipe 4-5.5 cm long, 6-10 (12) mm thick, more or less equal or enlarged at base, dingy-pallid, becoming darker below, striate, with scattered fibrils, becoming hollow. Veil white, arachnoid.

Spores (5.5) 6-7 (7.5) x 3.5-4 (4.5) µ, smooth, apical pore present but minute; shape in face view elliptic to ovate, in profile elliptic to very obscurely inequilateral, in KOH dull cinnamon, in Melzer's reagent paler; wall about 0.25 µ thick.

Basidia 21-25 x 5-6 µ, 4-spored, narrowly clavate, hyaline in KOH and nearly so in Melzer's reagent. Pleurocystidia 48-67 x 10-14 µ, fusoid ventricose to subfusoid, rarely obclavate, apex subacute to subcapitate, surface smooth, wall thickened to 0.5-0.75 µ, content homogeneous and hyaline to ochraceous. Cheilocystidia 28-45 (60) x 6-12 µ, similar to pleurocystidia or smaller and subfusoid to obclavate, walls smooth and thin to slightly thickened, content homogeneous. Caulocystidia 40-70 x 7-15 µ elongate-ellipsoid to subfusoid, thin-walled, smooth, content homogeneous.

Gill trama a central area of floccose hyphae more or less parallel in arrangement becoming more interwoven finally and cells often greatly inflated (± 15 µ), walls thin, smooth, ochraceous to nearly hyaline in KOH; subhymenium a gelatinous layer of hyaline, narrow hyphae (2-3 µ diam.), subparallel or diverging to basidia. Pileus cutis a gelatinous pellicle of narrow pale ochraceous smooth to asperulate hyphae interwoven loosely in the gelatinous matrix; hypodermial zone of amber-brown (in KOH) floccose smooth to incrusted hyphae of various diameters (cells inflated in many). Context hyphae with smooth thin ochraceous to hyaline walls, cells inflated. Clamp connections present. All hyphae not amyloid.

Habit, Habitat, and Distribution: On soil or rotten logs, New Mexico, August, Barrows 763.

Observations: This species is related to P. lubrica, in which the cystidia have thin walls. It dries to a tawny-olive tint, and is very dingy in appearance.

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