Summary:
Lepiota flammeotincta is recognized by 1) the staining reaction of the cap and the stem (but not the gills) when injured, to red then dark brown. Other features include 2) a dry cap with a whitish background, colored medium brown to purple brown or reddish brown or blackish on disc and with fibrous scales colored like the disc, 3) free, close, white gills sometimes with brownish edges, 4) a stem that widens slightly downward and is white in its upper part and becoming brown in its lower part (staining like the cap), 5) a flimsy membranous ring that is white on the upper inner surface and brown on the lower outer surface, 6) a white spore deposit, and 7) microscopic characters including smooth, thick-walled, dextrinoid spores and a cap covering that is a cutis. There is evidence that Lepiota flammeotincta should be in Leucoagaricus, (D. Miller, pers. comm.).

Cap:
(0.7)1.4-4.5cm across, convex, flat-convex to applanate [flat] with small and low umbo; at center pale gray-brown at first, turning dark brown, "almost black felted-tomentose, around centre with radially arranged fibrillose v-shaped squamules, starting out very pale, but changing to dark brown with age, on white to pale background which immediately and vividly discolours orange-red on touching, after some time completely dark brown", (Vellinga), 1.2-4.5cm across, convex becoming flat and then uplifted, disc at least slightly raised, margin downturned to flat; disc medium brown, toward margin developing fibrous scales colored like the disc, rubbed surface suddenly staining red to orange and slowly fading to brown, (Sieger), 1-6cm across, broadly convex becoming flat or uplifted at margin or sometimes broadly umbonate; brown, reddish brown, purplish brown or blackish fibrils or scales, on whitish background, surface staining red when bruised then slowly dark purplish brown; dry, (Phillips)

Flesh:
whitish in cap, immediately orange-red when cut, (Vellinga), white, staining pink, red or orange when bruised, then fading, (Phillips)

Gills:
free and close to stem, "moderately distant to moderately crowded", 35-50 reaching stem, (0)1-3 subgills between neighboring gills, rounded off near stem, (sub)ventricose, up to 0.6cm broad; "white to cream with pinkish sheen", not changing color when cut or touched; edge white-cystidiose, dark where touched, (Vellinga), free, close, in one or two tiers; white, not changing color when rubbed; edges fringed minutely, (Sieger), free, close; "white edges, sometimes brownish", (Phillips)

Stem:
4-8cm x 0.25-0.4cm, cylindric, gradually widening downward to 0.4-0.7cm wide base; "white at first, but instantly intensely red staining when touched, changing to dark brown fibrillose where touched, lengthwise short-fibrillose hollow, with some white rhizomorphs", (Vellinga), 4-9.5cm x 0.15-0.6cm at top, even or slightly club-shaped, stuffed becoming hollow; white in upper part, brown in lower part, "staining below the ring like the cap", (Sieger), 3-9.5cm x 0.1-0.6cm, slender, widening slightly toward base; white above ring, stem quickly bruising scarlet like cap, then turning dark brown; hairy like cap, membranous white partial veil forms sleeve-like ring on middle or upper stem, (Phillips)

Veil:
ring "flimsy, not with a distinct cuff and flaring part"; "dark on outside, and with a dark rim, white on the inside", often absent when mature, (Vellinga), ring persistent, flaring up and hanging down, "upper surface white, lower surface brown", (Sieger), white, membranous, sleeve-like ring on middle or upper stem, (Phillips)

Odor:
"rubber-like to astringent lepiotoid and unpleasant, sometimes with fruity component", (Vellinga), not remarkable (Sieger)

Taste:
unpleasant, sometimes bitter, (Sieger)

Microscopic spores:
spores in side view 5.9-9.0 x 3.4-5.6 microns, oblong to almost cylindric, with straight abaxial side and convex adaxial side, some subamygdaliform [somewhat almond-shaped], in face view oblong to almost cylindric, smooth, dextrinoid, thick-walled, without germ pore, often with one droplet; basidia 4-spored, "but in some collections with a relatively high number with 2-spored sterigmata"; pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia forming a sterile gill edge, 25-70 x 4.5-12.0(13.0) microns, cylindric, cylindric-wavy (at least a few), "more rarely narrowly clavate to narrowly utriform", "with some dark brown granules or very pale brown in ammonia"; cap covering "cutis-like with bundles of repent to ascending hyphae, made up of brown-walled, sometimes incrusted cells, also with dark granules and blobs and intracellular brown pigment (in ammonia)", "extracellular pigment blobs present", terminal elements 55-180 x 5-16 microns, cylindric to slightly inflated, not differentiated or differentiated with rounded or acuminate tips; clamp connections not seen, (Vellinga), spores 6.3-7.9(9.5) x 3.9-4.7 microns, elliptic, [presumably smooth], thick-walled, without a germ pore, apiculate, pale to dark reddish brown in Melzer''s (dextrinoid); pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia abundant, clavate to cylindric, "sometimes irregular or branched or capitate"; cap cuticle "interwoven, lacking a trichodermium but with many upright hyphae that are often in bundles near the margin", (Sieger), spores 6-8.5 x 4-4.8 microns, elliptic, smooth, dextrinoid, (Phillips), spores 7-8 x 4-5 microns, smooth, wall somewhat thickened, deep rusty brown in Melzer''s reagent, no germ pore evident; basidia 4-spored, 20-26 x 5.3-9 microns, colorless in KOH and Melzer''s reagent; pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia 26-49 x 5-18 microns, "merely inflated and basidium-like or sometimes constricted in one or two places, thin-walled", colorless in KOH, colorless to pale yellow in Melzer''s reagent, content granular; cap cuticle of irregularly interwoven hyphae terminating in slightly differentiated, thin-walled pileocystidia 78-144 x 5.2-12.5 microns, the walls nearly colorless to very pale yellow in Melzer''s reagent, "the content light smoky brown and granular", pileocystidia "somewhat arranged in groups or tufts to form scales that are more or less erect"; clamp connections absent, (Smith, H.V.)

Spore deposit:
white (Phillips)

Notes:
Collections were examined from CA and OR, and it is also known from WA, (Vellinga(19)). There are collections from BC at the University of British Columbia and collections from ID at Oregon State University. It is found widely distributed throughout North America (Phillips).

EDIBILITY

unknown (Phillips)