Pholiota malicola (Kauffman) Smith Cap 3-6cm across, obtusely cone-shaped, becoming flatter in age with an umbo; wax yellow or straw yellow, with a greenish tinge, then sulphur yellow with an opaque margin; sticky becoming dry and shining, with thin brown hairy patches of veil remnants when young Gills adnate to sinuate, close to crowded; yellow becoming reddish cinnamon, edges white-fringed. Stem 40-120 x 4-12mm, solid; same color as cap or whitish at top, darker, more tawny below; hairy patches of pallid or yellowish veil remnants below the ring, becoming tawny like the base; evanescent submembranous or hairy ring, sometimes poorly formed. Flesh thick on disc, thin on margin, pliant; whitish. Odor not distinctive or slightly alkaline. Taste not distinctive or slightly alkaline. Spores ellipsoid to ovoid, smooth, small germ pore, 8.5-11 x 4.5-5.5µ. Deposit rust-red. No pleurocystidia; cheilocystidia and caulocystidia present. Habitat in dense clusters on stumps, debris, buried wood, or at the base of conifers and hardwoods. Found in northeastern North America. Season July-November. Not edible. |