The North American Species of Pholiota

14. Pholiota granulosa (Pk.) comb. nov.

Flammula granulosa Peck, in V. White, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 29: 561. 1902.

Illustrations: Text figs. 19-21; pl. 29b.

Pileus 1-3.5 cm broad, convex and remaining broadly convex, margin long remaining incurved, surface dry and covered by a dense coating of minute erect fibrillose squamules over disc, but those toward margin more or less granular and more appressed, margin at first hung with the delicate remnants of the yellow ("antimony yellow") veil; color of epicutis bright rich yellow-brown ("amber brown" to "Sudan brown"), the yellowish ground color showing between the squamules. Context thin, watery-ochraceous, unchanging when cut, odor and taste mild; in KOH instantly dark brown, in FeSO₄ soon olive-black.

Lamellae rather narrow (3-4 mm broad in large fruiting bodies), broadest near stipe and tapered toward pileus margin, bluntly adnate, close to crowded, pale yellow young ("chamois" to "antimony-yellow"), spores not obscuring the yellow ground color, not becoming spotted, edges even.

Stipe 3-5 cm long, 2-3.5 mm thick, soon tubular to hollow, equal, with a pallid pad of mycelium at base, upper part pale yellow like the gills, below the veil-line thinly scurfy-fibrillose from veil remnants that are yellow to concolorous with the squamules of the pileus, in age becoming dark rusty brown from the base upward.

Spores 7.5-9 x 4-4.5 x 4.5-6 µ, smooth, elliptic to somewhat ovate in face view, slightly bean-shaped in profile or with the ventral line merely straighter than the dorsal line, slightly compressed (at least some of the spores), color in KOH rather bright yellow-brown, paler in Melzer's, apex with a very minute pore.

Basidia 4-spored, 20-25 x 7-9 µ, yellowish as revived in KOH. Pleurocystidia none. Cheilocystidia narrowly clavate to subglobose, 20-30 x 9-15 µ, walls hyaline to golden ochraceous revived in KOH but when fresh pale cinnamon, showing some tendency for the wall to thicken, very few of them fusoid-ventricose to utriform. Caulocystidia 26-40 x 9-18 µ, clavate, subelliptic or broadly fusoid-ventricose, walls thin but rusty cinnamon in KOH.

Gill trama of subparallel hyphae with yellowish walls in KOH, smooth and thin as revived in KOH, the cells 8-15 µ diam., (inflated in age), narrower toward the poorly formed indistinct subhymenium. Pileus cutis of filaments aggregated into fascicles and with the cell walls thin, rusty cinnamon in KOH and nearly smooth to asperulate or finely roughened, terminal cells somewhat cystidioid to merely elliptic; subcutis of appressed rusty-cinnamon hyphae smooth to incrusted and narrower than those in the fascicles (in the latter 8-15 µ diam.) Context of hyphae paler than those of subcutis (in KOH) to merely yellowish, interwoven. Clamp connections present. All tissues inamyloid (color not much different from that seen in KOH mounts.)

Habit, Habitat, and Distribution: Solitary to widely gregarious on debris and wood of conifers and hardwoods, June to September; Maine to Michigan. The description is from Smith 9546, from near Pontiac, Mich.

Observations: The distribution of this species in North America remains to be ascertained, since there is such a strong possibility of confusion between P. muricata, P. erinaceella, P. limulata and P. granulosa. According to the Friesian descriptions Agaricus muricatus has broad adnexed-seceding gills and a rather strongly squamulose stipe below the veil-line. The description of Naucoria muricata in Kühner & Romagnesi reads more like that of P. erinaceella, especially in regard to the cheilocystidia. Certainly the account by Pearson (1949) under Naucoria muricata describes a species different from P. granulosa on the basis of cheilocystidia alone. It seems that the best characterization of Pholiota muricata that can be made at present is that it is a yellow-gilled P. erinaceella.

Flammula limulata is close to P. granulosa. To try and resolve this problem specimens collected and identified by Lars Romell were borrowed from the Riksmuseet at Stockholm. The following is a detailed description of the microscopic features of this material:

Spores 7-9 x 4-5 µ, smooth, apical pore very minute; shape in face view elliptic to subovate, in profile obscurely bean-shaped to obscurely inequilateral; color in KOH pale cinnamon, in Melzer's reagent about the same; wall about 0.25 µ.

Basidia 18-21 x 5-6 µ, 4-spored, nearly hyaline in KOH, narrowly clavate to subcylindric. Pleurocystidia none. Cheilocystidia 23-30 x 9-14 µ, clavate to nearly utriform; walls thin, smooth, yellow to hyaline; content homogeneous. Caulocystidia rare, merely as decumbent clavate to subfusoid hyphal tips with slightly thickened (about 0.5 µ) walls dark chestnut in KOH.

Gill trama of subparallel hyphae with tan to rusty red walls in KOH, smooth, cells 3-6 (10) µ wide; subhymenium cellular, non-gelatinous, hyphal walls merely yellowish in KOH. Pileus cuticle a "collapsed" trichodermium of heavily incrusted hyphae dark rusty brown to chestnut; the cells 8-18 µ, broad and mostly rather short, some as sphaerocysts but these not disarticulating. Context hyphae yellowish in KOH, cells smooth and inflated. All hyphae inamyloid. Clamp connections present (text figs. 480-482).

As can be readily ascertained, the spores are about the same but F. limulata has much heavier ornamentation on the trichodermial hyphae. The gill trama is much more highly colored also. Both characteristically occur on conifer wood. We do not regard these two as synonyms. Although P. granulosa was described from conifer wood, the Michigan collections were all on wood of hardwoods. A portion of White's type was examined. In it most of the cheilocystidia were hyaline, but the basidiocarp was obviously young. It seems quite likely that Josserand's (1965) excellent account of "Naucoria (Floccularia) limulata" actually applies to P. granulosa. Because of the discrepancies between the features of the Romell specimen cited above and Josserand's description we are using the name which is based on North American collections.

Material Examined: MAINE: White (the type). MICHIGAN: Mazzer 4035; Smith 7-19-29, 9546 (typical), 25912, 32393, 49933, 57367, 61408, 61435, 73083, 73133.