Summary:
Features include 1) the pale gray to vinaceous-gray to light purplish vinaceous to vinaceous-buff cap color (the most distinguishing characteristic), 2) a slimy viscid bald cap, 3) a pinkish reaction that sometimes occurs when the flesh is cut, 4) decurrent white then grayish gills, 5) a white glutinous stem that enlarges downward then tapers to a point, the stem sometimes yellow at the extreme base, 6) a glutinous partial veil, 7) scattered to single habit under conifers, sometimes in association with Suillus lakei, 8) a blackish spore deposit, and 9) elongate spores. Miller(19) (2003) regarded this taxon as a synonym of G. glutinosus: "Gomphidius smithii is very closely related to G. glutinosus as stated by Miller (1971), and ITS data from a Utah collection ... bears this out... It was recorded by Singer under Pinus flexilis James but there are no good characters to separate it from G. glutinosus. Since it is in the same clade with G. glutinosus, I regard it as a synonym of that species.", (Miller(19), with Latin names italicized).

Cap:
3-6cm across, convex with incurved margin; pale gray, grayish vinaceous, pallid vinaceous, light purplish vinaceous, or vinaceous-buff; slimy viscid, bald, the incurved part of margin white and cottony, (Miller(4)), 2.5-7.5cm across, "convex-flattened to depressed; grayish to vinaceous gray; smooth, viscid when wet", (Phillips)

Flesh:
soft; white, "when cut becoming very slightly flushed with vinaceous or pink in some caps", and often pinkish in stem base when cut, (Miller(4)), white (Phillips)

Gills:
short-decurrent to long-decurrent, close to subdistant, narrow to moderately broad, many gills them forked once or twice; white then grayish; edges even, (Miller(4)), "decurrent, broad, almost waxy; white then pale gray and finally blackish gray", (Phillips)

Stem:
5-8cm x 0.8-1.3cm, thick at apex, slightly enlarged downward then narrowed almost to a point at base; white at top, with a sheath of colorless gluten more or less covering the lower three quarters of the stem, "shining white beneath gluten becoming duller downward and sometimes yellow at extreme base", finally sordid vinaceous to blackish where handled, (Miller(4)), 3-7.5cm x 0.5-1.5cm, "tapered at base; white to dull grayish with no yellow at base; dry above veil zone, viscid below", (Phillips)

Veil:
an outer layer of colorless gluten over a white fibrillose layer, (Miller(4))

Odor:
none (Miller(4)), pleasant (Phillips)

Taste:
mild (Miller(4)), pleasant (Phillips)

Microscopic spores:
spores 14-18.5 x 4.5-6 microns, elliptic in face view, subfusiform [somewhat spindle-shaped] in side view, smooth, light gray-brown in KOH, light ochraceous in Melzer''s reagent; basidia 4-spored, 40-44 x 6-9 microns, clavate, colorless to light yellow in KOH, yellow in Melzer''s reagent; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia 99-110 x 10-15 microns, cylindric to fusiform, thin-walled, colorless in Melzer''s reagent and KOH; no clamp connections found, (Miller(4)), spores 15-20 x 4.5-7 microns, narrowly elliptic, (Phillips)

Spore deposit:
blackish (Phillips)

Notes:
Gomphidius smithii has been found in CA, OR, ID, MT, and "in all likelihood Washington", according to Miller(4). There are collections from BC at the University of British Columbia, collections from WA, OR, and CA at the University of Washington, and collections from OR and WA at Oregon State University.

EDIBILITY

yes (Phillips)