Summary:
Hygrophorus pacificus has a strong penetrating aromatic odor. Other features include a viscid cap that is russet to tawny, the margin becoming paler; distant, broad gills that are pale yellowish to creamy buff; a dry stem that is pale yellowish or creamy buff or whitish; a mild taste; and large spores. The description is derived from Hesler(1) except where noted.
Hesler(1) examined collections from WA, ID, CA, and NS. There are collections from BC at the University of British Columbia. There are collections from OR at Oregon State University.
Cap:
3-8cm across, convex eventually becoming flat, margin often lobed or notched or wavy and remaining incurved for a long time; 'evenly "russet" to "tawny" when young, at maturity "tawny" on the disc and "pinkish buff" on the margin'; viscid, bald, "margin faintly tomentose under a lens, usually pleated-crenate when unexpanded", (Hesler), "evenly red-brown at first, then red-brown at the center and pinkish buff at the margin", (Stuntz)
Flesh:
rather thin and rigid; whitish
Gills:
adnate or with decurrent tooth, distant, broad (1cm), thick, often forking near cap margin; "marguerite yellow" to "cream buff" when young, "cream color" when old; edges even, (Hesler), gills yellow from the first (Stuntz)
Stem:
4-7cm x 0.8-1.5cm, narrowing at base, solid or sometimes hollow at top; colored as gills or whitish; dry, fibrillose-pruinose on upper half with whitish fibrils, bald and unpolished lower part, (Hesler), pale yellowish or white (Stuntz)
Odor:
strong and penetrating, aromatic, (Hesler), aromatic, not like almond, (Stuntz)
Microscopic spores:
spores 10-14 x 5.5-7.5 microns, elliptic, smooth, inamyloid; basidia 2-spored and 4-spored, 50-82 x 7-9 microns, sterigmata stout; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia absent; gill tissue divergent; clamp connections on cap cuticle and gill trama
Spore deposit:
[presumably white]
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