E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Summary:
Gomphidius subroseus is identified as a Gomphidius by its viscid-slimy cap, its white flesh except in base of stem where it is yellow, the soft decurrent gills, growth under conifers, sometimes associated with Suillus lakei, and the smoky-black spores. It is identified as Gomphidius subroseus by its modest size and its rosy-red to pink cap. It is common in the Pacific Northwest.

Gomphidius subroseus is found in BC, WA, OR, and ID. Miller examined collections from AB, QC, NS, CA, ID, ME, MI, MT, OR, and WA, (Miller(4)). It is common on foray lists in BC and there are collections for BC at the Pacific Forestry Center and the University of British Columbia.

Cap:
2.5-7.5cm across, at first peg-like, then broadly convex becoming flat or broadly depressed; dull to bright pink to rosy red or even red, often spotted grayish when old; viscid or slimy when moist, smooth, (Arora), 4-6cm across, convex, expanded flat and very obtuse or broadly depressed; pink to red, usually lighter toward margin; surface a separable, gelatinous, colorless pellicle that is bald and glutinous when wet, (Miller(4))

Flesh:
white, or tinged pink just under cap surface, yellow in base of stem, sometimes pinkish in extreme base, (Arora), thick on disc, abruptly thin at margin; dull white, tinged cap color near surface; in stem glossy white except lower one quarter "which is bright yellow to orange-yellow but sometimes pinkish at base", (Miller(4))

Gills:
"typically decurrent, soft and rather waxy, fairly well spaced"; white becoming pale gray to smoky gray or finally blackish, (Arora), "decurrent, close to subdistant, rather broad, abruptly short", acuminate on stem; pallid becoming smoke gray then darker, (Miller(4))

Stem:
3-7.5cm x 0.5-1.5cm, equal or narrowed slightly at base, solid; "dry and white above the veil, usually viscid below and white to dingy-colored with a pale yellow to bright yellow base"; smooth or fibrillose, (Arora), 3.5-7cm x 0.6-1.7cm, narrowing downward, solid; white, sometimes dingy or blackening when old, yellow or amber yellow only at base, fading somewhat when old; at top appearing silky, just below top a colorless, glutinous, thin ring of veil remnants present, (Miller(4))

Veil:
"white and fibrillose beneath a layer of slime", "disappearing or forming an obscure hairy-slimy superior ring" on stem that is blackened by spores, (Arora), thin, colorless, glutinous, occasionally with a thin fibrillose layer forming at cap margin or where the veil joins the stem, (Miller(4))

Odor:
mild (Arora), none (Miller(4))

Taste:
mild (Arora), none (Miller(4))

Microscopic spores:
spores (11)15-20.5 x 4.5-7 microns, narrowly elliptic in face view, subfusiform [somewhat spindle-shaped] in side view, smooth, medium gray brown in KOH, ochraceous in Melzer''s reagent; basidia 4-spored, 31-47 x 6-10 microns, clavate to nearly cylindric, colorless in KOH, in crushed mounts colorless to light ochraceous yellow in Melzer''s reagent; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia 85-129 x 13.5-16.5 microns, cylindric to narrowly fusiform, thin-walled, colorless in KOH or Melzer''s reagent; caulocystidia in fascicles at apex of stem 83-125 x 11-14 microns, cylindric to fusiform with encrusting material near apex, colorless in KOH except for incrusted matter that is reddish to yellow-brown; no clamp connections found, (Miller(4)), spores (11)15-21 x 4.5-7 microns, spindle-shaped to narrowly elliptic, smooth, (Arora)

Spore deposit:
smoky-gray to black (Arora)