Summary:
Section Sacchariolentia. Hebeloma sacchariolens group is characterized by the strong sweet or fruity or aromatic odor. Other features include a white to brown or cream cap that is usually paler at the margin (two-colored); adnate or emarginate, crowded, narrow gills that are pallid then milky coffee-color; a white to brown stem that is pruinose at the top; and large lemon-shaped or almond-shaped, warty spores. Wood(2) identified the chemical source of the odor as 2-aminobenzaldehyde, a major constituent in the fragrant scents of some flowers. Hebeloma collections with the characteristic odor are fairly common in the Pacific Northwest.

Cap:
2-8cm across, "soon flattened; white to pale cream; dry to viscid when wet", (Phillips), 2-6cm across, bell-shaped then convex; "whitish, brown at disc, entire surface darkening with age"; "smooth, quite viscid in damp weather", (Lincoff), 2-8.5cm across, ocher-gray-brown, margin sometimes paler; bald (except var. tomentosum), greasy, (Moser), 2-4.5cm across, bell-shaped, convex, often irregular; ochraceous buff at center, paler at margin, (Hansen), up to 4cm across, uniformly colored or center dingy russet-ocher, margin pale cream; viscid or "as if iced", (Courtecuisse)

Flesh:
soft; white, (Phillips), yellowish, sometimes brown-ocher, (Lincoff)

Gills:
"emarginate to adnate, sometimes with decurrent tooth" (italicized), maximum breadth 0.3-1.0cm, 32-58 gills reaching stem, droplets absent, edge not white-fimbriate or only weakly so, (Beker), "crowded, narrow; pallid then milky-coffee color", (Phillips), adnate; whitish then brown-ocher, eventually rust; edge whitish, (Lincoff), slightly crowded (Hansen), ochraceous beige (Courtecuisse)

Stem:
(1.6)2.2-8.0(9.0)cm x (0.3)0.39-0.85(1.0)cm, "cylindrical, occasionally tapering, sometimes clavate" (italicized), not rooting and no mycelial cords, interior "stuffed, later hollow, rarely with superior wick" (italicized); [white in original description]; "fibrillose or velute [velvety], usually pruinose or even floccose at apex" (italicized), (Beker), 4-10cm x 0.4-1cm, equal, soft, fibrous; pallid, (Phillips), 4-5cm long, about 1cm wide, narrowing toward top; white then tinged with ocher or brownish starting at base; pruinose at top, fibrillose, (Lincoff), 4-9cm x 0.4-1.2cm, apex pruinose, (Moser), 2.5-6cm x 0.3-0.6(1)cm, white, base often slightly fusoid [spindle-shaped], (Hansen), up to 5cm long and 0.5cm wide, concolorous, (Courtecuisse)

Veil:
cortina absent, cap does not have universal veil remnants (Beker), none (see discussion in Smith(7) under index entries)

Odor:
sweet, variously described as burnt sugar, sweetish reminiscent of orange blossoms (Citrus) or meadowsweet (Filipendula), (Beker), "strong, penetrating, very sweet and aromatic, like burnt sugar, orange blossom, or fruit candy", (Phillips), distinctive, of orange blossom or caramel, (Lincoff), exceptionally sweetish, like fruit sweets, orange-blossom, etc., (Moser), strong, sweet, fruity, soapy, sickly, (Buczacki)

Taste:
mild to slightly bitter (Beker), sweetish (Lincoff), bitter (Courtecuisse)

Microscopic spores:
spores (7.3)8.6-13.5(14.2) x (5)5.4-7.8(8.7) microns, amygdaloid [almond-shaped], limoniform [lemon-shaped], rarely fusoid [spindle-shaped], yellow brown to brown under the microscope, guttulation variable, usually strongly papillate; basidia 4-spored (rarely 2-spored), (24.3)26.1-41.7(44.5) x 6-9.2(9.8) microns; cheilocystidia (12)13-67(72) x (2.5)3.8-12.7(17.4) microns wide at apex, (2.3)2.5-11.4 microns wide at middle, (0.6)2.4-13.3(17) microns wide at base, "irregular, sometimes sparse and intermingled with basidia, varying from cylindrical to gently clavate to balloon shaped or ventricose, usually short" (italicized), occasionally "branching, geniculate, rostrate, septate (often clamped)" (italicized), pleurocystidia none; caulocystidia similar to cheilocystidia, irregular, often multi-septate up to 120 microns long, (Beker), spores 12-17 x 7-9 microns, lemon-shaped, warty, (Phillips), spores 12-17 x 7-9 microns, elliptic, finely speckled, (Lincoff), spores 12-17 x 7-9(9.8) microns, almond-shaped to lemon-shaped; cystidia capitate, (Moser), spores 10.5-14(16) x 6.5-7.5 microns, almond-shaped, slightly rugulose [wrinkled] to almost smooth; cystidia cylindric to clavate [presumably cheilocystidia as pleurocystidia generally absent in Hebeloma], (Hansen)

Spore deposit:
brownish olive (Beker), pale brown (Phillips), olive-brown (Buczacki)

Notes:
Hebeloma sacchariolens itself is a European species with an undetermined distribution in North America. Unpublished research indicates that it occurs in BC, WA, OR, and CA, (Henry Beker, pers. comm.). There are collections labeled Hebeloma sacchariolens from BC at the University of British Columbia and Pacific Forestry Centre and from WA at the University of Washington. Hebeloma sacchariolens occurs in CA according to Wood(2) who would not have been in a position to distinguish the species in this group with the characteristic odor from each other. Beker(1) examined collections from Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, Poland, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and New Zealand.

EDIBILITY

unknown, best avoided (Phillips)