Summary:
Features include 1) a viscid to dry cap that is whitish to pinkish tan to straw color at the center, paler at the margin, 2) pale gills, and 3) a dry, cream stem that is white-furfuraceous at the top. Hesler(1) say (with Latin names italicized), "The problem is whether H. penarius and H. sordidus are actually different. A careful comparison of these two should be made with emphasis on chemical characters." They also note that descriptions of European material are not always in full agreement.

Cap:
5-8cm across, convex becoming subumbonate [somewhat umbonate]; whitish to pinkish tan or stramineous [straw color] at center; "often viscid around the margin at first, soon dry", (Hesler), convex; pinkish tan to straw color at center, paler at margin; viscid at first but soon dry and then does not look viscid, (Stuntz), 4-10cm across, almost hemispheric when young, later convex to flat or irregularly undulating [wavy], "often slightly umbonate, uplifted when old", margin acute; "ivory-white, darker and cream-colored toward the center"; "dull, appressed-tomentose, sometimes slightly areolate when dry", (Breitenbach), 6-11cm across, "convex to uplifted and undulating", margin incurved, then decurved [downcurved] when old; hygrophanous, creamy yellow effused with pallid areas; somewhat shiny, viscid as seen under a lens, margin opaque, (Largent)

Flesh:
compact; white, (Hesler), thick; white, (Breitenbach), thick; pale orangish buff to pale orangish yellow under cap surface, whitish above stem, unchanging; in stem "white, becoming off-white on exposure, unchanging", (Largent)

Gills:
slightly decurrent, subdistant; pale, (Hesler), decurrent, 75-85 reaching stem, 1-3 subgills between neighboring gills, gills narrow, strongly forked and anastomosing; cream; edges smooth, (Breitenbach), "adnexed to sinuate to ascending adnexed, close to subdistant", moderately broad, 0.4-0.8cm broad; pale orangish white to pale orange, margin the same color; margin even, (Largent)

Stem:
4-6cm x 1-1.5cm, white; dry, white-furfuraceous [with white branny particles] at top, (Hesler), 3.5-6.0 x 1-1.5cm, cylindric to conic, solid to pithy-hollow, base tapered and root-like; "finely white furfuraceous-floccose on a cream-colored background, slightly viscid when moist", (Breitenbach), 4.5-9cm x 2-3.5cm broad at top, 2.8-3.8cm in middle, 1.5-2.5cm at base, stuffed, round in cross-section; white, bruising pale to moderate yellow-brown particularly at base; dry, dull, strongly punctate at top, pruinose to slightly punctate elsewhere, (Largent)

Odor:
none (Hesler, Breitenbach), a combination of fragrant (i.e. pleasant) and somewhat meaty, more or less like odor of Pholiota squarrosa, (Largent)

Taste:
pleasant (Hesler), "mild, pleasant and somewhat nutty", (Breitenbach), a combination of pleasant and somewhat meaty, more or less like taste of Pholiota squarrosa, (Largent)

Microscopic spores:
spores 5-6(7.5) x 3.5-4 microns, elliptic, smooth, inamyloid; basidia 2-spored and 4-spored, 37-48 x 4-6 microns; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia none; gill tissue divergent, hyphae 4-5 microns (both narrow and broad hyphae abundant); cuticle a gelatinous zone, 100-150 microns thick; clamp connections on cuticular hyphae, (Hesler), spores 6-8.4 x 3.3-4.2 microns, cylindric-elliptic, iodine negative, smooth, with droplets; basidia 4-spored, 48-55 x 5-7 microns, cylindric-clavate, with basal clamp connection; cystidia not seen; cap cuticle of +/- parallel to irregular hyphae 2-7 microns wide, brown-pigmented and gelatinized, septa with clamp connections, some with medallion clamp connections, (Breitenbach), 6.1-8.6 x 4.0-4.75 microns, elliptic, smooth to punctate, inamyloid; cap cuticle an ixocutis; clamp connections abundant in all parts, (Largent)

Spore deposit:
white (Breitenbach)

Notes:
Hesler(1) examined collections from WA, Denmark, and France. Largent(4) says it was collected once in CA. Breitenbach(3) found it for Switzerland. There is a collection by Paul Kroeger from BC at the University of British Columbia.

EDIBILITY

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Limacium penarium (Fr.) Wunsche