The North American Species of Crepidotus

Ex 9. Pleuroflammula flammea (Murr.) Singer apud Singer and Smith, Mycologia 38: 522. 1946.

Crepidotus flammeus Murr., North Amer. Flora 10: 153. 1917.

Pileus 8-20 mm broad, stipitate or sessile, convex, yellowish when young, in age becoming "ochraceous-tawny" to reddish-orange or rusty-orange, dry, tomentose-squamulose, margin at first appendiculate, even when dry, somewhat striate when wet. Context yellowish; odor mild, taste bitter.

Lamellae adnate, broad, subdistant, at first "colonial buff" then rusty-brown, edges whitish-crenulate.

Stipe when present 1.5-3 mm x 0.5-0.7 mm, minutely velvety, lateral, often almost none, or entirely absent. Veil present, at first fibrillose-powdery, finally as remnants on the stipe and pileus margin.

Spores in deposit: "cinnamon brown" to "Dresden brown"; spores 6.5-8 (9) x 4.5-6 (7) µ, broadly ellipsoid to sub-ovoid, thick-walled, smooth. Gill trama subparallel, 3-6 (10) µ broad. Pleurocystidia none; cheilocystidia clustered, cylindric to clavate, usually more or less subcapitate, at times flexuous, 22-56 x 4-8 µ. Cuticle a distinct, thin zone of repent, narrow hyphae, bearing numerous scales composed of erect, narrow (2-5 µ), brown, septate hyphae, some of which are incrusted. Clamp connections present.

Habit, Habitat, and Distribution: On hardwood logs and fallen, dead twigs, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, June-August.

Material Studied: NORTH CAROLINA: Hesler 5117, 9247, 12782; TENNESSEE: Hesler 3655, 4100, 18678; VIRGINIA: Murrill 221, type (NY), from Crabbottom, July 17-21, 1904.

Observations: This species, although resembling a Crepidotus and originally described under that genus, has been transferred to Pleuroflammula, primarily because of its veil.