Summary:
Section Velutipes. Distinctive features are a vinaceous brown to pinkish tan cap, a long white (non-discoloring) stem with a bulbous base, absent veil, a radish-like odor, a bitterish to radish-like taste, and medium-sized, obscurely ornamented spores, (Smith(44) who also adds non-spotting gills lacking droplets but this is debatable). Other features include habitat in Sphagnum associated with conifers, spores that turn dark reddish brown when mounted in Melzer''s reagent, and narrow cheilocystidia. Trudell(4) say that this is one apparently common Pacific Northwest species that has been misidentified as Hebeloma crustuliniforme. H. incarnatulum is closely related to H. velutipes rather than H. crustuliniforme in the Boyle(1) molecular study. Hebeloma incarnatulum is a member of the Hebeloma velutipes complex, along with Hebeloma velutipes, Hebeloma leucosarx and others, (Beker(1)).

Gills:
adnate with a decurrent tooth, crowded, narrow; avellaneous but with a tint of cinnamon; "edge white-floccose, seldom beaded with moisture and none seen with brownish spots", (Smith), "adnate to emarginate sometimes with a decurrent tooth" (italicized), maximum breadth 0.24-0.5cm, 48-66 reaching stem, droplets usually visible with naked eye, edge usually white fimbriate, sometimes weakly, (Beker)

Stem:
5-9cm x 0.5-1(1.2)cm, "equal above a more or less distinct bulb"; white to pallid overall; furfuraceous to pruinose at top, surface often +/- longitudinally striate, surface undulating, (Smith), (3.1)5.9-12.0(13.0)cm x (0.4)0.6-0.9(1.2)cm at mid-stem, (0.5)0.57-1.75(2.9)cm wide at base, usually bulbous, occasionally clavate, rarely cylindric; non-rooting, no mycelial cords; stem interior "stuffed then hollow, occasionally with superior wick" (italicized); [stem whitish then drab according to original diagnosis]; usually pruinose then floccose, particularly at top, occasionally velvety, (Beker)

Veil:
absent (Smith), cortina absent (Beker)

Odor:
radish-like (Smith), radish-like, sometimes weakly, (Beker)

Taste:
bitterish to radish-like, +/- nauseous, (Smith), radish-like, sometimes mild, sometimes bitter, (Beker)

Microscopic spores:
spores 9-12 x 5.5-7(7.5) microns, ovate in face view, inequilateral in side view, at apex at most only slightly snout-like, surface smooth under high dry magnification, pale clay color revived in KOH, tawny reddish to distinctly dextrinoid in Melzer''s reagent; basidia 4-spored, 24-32 x 8-12 microns, pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia (37)50-70 x 4-7 microns, "versiform: hockeystick-like, filamentose, cylindric, short to long-clavate, all blunt at apex, some elongate fusoid-ventricose, some with a subapical swelling to a rudimentary branch, often in bunches and apparently somewhat agglutinated (but not discolored)"; cap cuticle an ixocutis, the hyphae narrow (1-2.5 microns wide), clamped and near hypodermium mostly 2-5 microns wide; hypodermium "a layer of cells and hyphal segments", color +/- clay color in KOH, "no incrustations present on the walls", (Smith), spores (7.5)8.4-13(13.2) x (5)5.1-7.2(7.6) microns, amygdaloid, under microscope "yellow brown to brown, often very pale" (italicized), guttulation variable, at most weakly papillate; basidia 4-spored (rarely 2-spored), (20.7)23.5-31.7(32.1) x (6.6)6.7-9.1(10) microns; cheilocystidia (32)34-98(139) microns long, (2.3)3.6-7.9(10.2) microns wide at apex (averaging 4.5-6.5 microns), (2.9)3.2-5.8(8) microns wide median, 3.1-8.2(8.6) microns wide at base, "gently clavate, occasionally clavate-lageniform or cylindrical" (italicized), occasionally "bifurcate, conglutinate, septate (sometimes clamped)" (italicized); caulocystidia similar to cheilocystidia, up to 150 microns long, often multi-septate, (Beker)

Spore deposit:
dingy reddish cinnamon (Smith), "brownish olive to cinnamon or umber or sepia" (italicized) (Beker)

Notes:
Hebeloma incarnatulum has been collected from WA (S. Trudell, pers. comm.). It also occurs in MI (Smith(44)). Collections were examined from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Poland, and Switzerland, (Beker(1)). Unpublished research indicates that it occurs in BC and WA (Henry Beker, pers. comm.).

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