The North American Species of Pholiota
173. Pholiota velata (Pk.) comb. nov.
Flammula velata Peck, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 30: 96. 1903.
Gymnopilus velatus (Pk.) Murrill, North Amer. Fl. 10: 196. 1917.
Illustrations: Text figs. 381-383.
Pileus 2-4 cm broad, convex, sulphur-yellow, center reddish or orange, margin persistently incurved. Context thin, especially toward the margin, yellow or greenish yellow; taste mild.
Lamellae adnate or slightly decurrent, arcuate, pale yellow, becoming rusty brown or snuff-brown in age, medium narrow.
Stipe 2.5-4.5 cm long, 2-4 mm thick, sulfur-yellow above, brownish below, fibrillose, somewhat tomentose at the base, flexuous, solid. Veil arachnoid, yellowish-white, strongly developed.
Spores 7-9 x 4-4.5 (5) µ smooth, apical pore minute and apex not truncate; shape in face view oblong to elliptic, in profile obscurely inequilateral; tawny to ochraceous in KOH, not much different in Melzer's reagent; wall about 0.3 µ thick.
Basidia 18-24 x 5-6.5 µ, obese, 4-spored, yellowish revived in KOH or Melzer's reagent. Pleurocystidia 45-62 x 7-14 µ, fusoid-ventricose, broadly obtuse or subacute at apex, neck in outline often wavy; wall thin to slightly thickened (–0.5 µ), smooth or coated or capped with hardened amber mucilaginous material; content of coagulated amber-colored material gradually dissolving in KOH and content then yellowish to hyaline. Cheilocystidia 30-45 x 7-12 µ, subfusoid to fusoid-ventricose, similar to pleurocystidia in remaining features. Caulocystidia not studied.
Gill trama of floccose subparallel hyphae hyaline to yellowish in KOH (not reviving well); subhymenium a gelatinous layer of narrow (± 2.5 µ) hyaline hyphae. Pileus cutis a gelatinous pellicle of interwoven narrow (1.5-2.5 µ) hyaline to yellowish hyphae; hypodermial region highly colored. Clamp connections present. All hyphae non-amyloid.
Habit, Habitat, and Distribution: In woods along streams, Idaho, July; type studied.
Observations: The small size, strongly developed yellowish white veil, and the yellow to greenish yellow flesh are distinctive. It is close to P. tottenii, in which brown tints are in the pileus, the flesh pale-buff, and the gills emarginate and broad. We have found no record of its occurrence other than the type.
The microscopic data are from the type. The species is typical of subgenus Flammuloides and appears close to P. graveolens.
