Summary:
Phaeocollybia ammiratii is a member of the Phaeocollybia kauffmanii complex as described by Norvell(9) with the following characters 1) large size and robust stature, 2) fleshy, lubricous to glutinous, conic-campanulate caps with ochraceous, tawny, brown or drab colors, 3) thick, firmly stuffed, cartilaginous stems that are never hollow, 4) vertical-monopodial pseudorhizae, 5) amber, verruculose to verrucose, lemon-shaped spores, and 6) thin-walled, generally clavate cheilocystidia (see P. kauffmanii for further details). Phaeocollybia ammiratii is differentiated from others in the complex most easily by the frequent clamp connections that are particularly noticeable on the cheilocystidia and narrow suprapellicular hyphae (check the latter as the former can be confusing because of the way the hyphae connect). The lower part of the stem above the ground is vinaceous, and the dried cap usually has a gold metallic sheen unique within the complex. See SIMILAR for some other macroscopic differences. Gills are close to crowded and when young colored orange-cream. The description is derived from Norvell(2) unless otherwise specified. It is neither rare nor common.

Cap:
4-8(11.5)cm across, "convex with tightly inrolled outer margin", expanding to broadly bell-shaped with low, frequently papillate umbo and incurved to straight outer margin (edge not inrolled as elsewhere in the complex); when young dull ocher to pale butterscotch overall or distinctly zonate with red-brown disc, tawny outer margin, and pale yellow-brown edges, becoming tawny to butterscotch overall in maturity, dried cap distinctly metallic, pale copper; viscid to glutinous when wet, bald, opaque, nonstriate

Flesh:
confluent in cap and stem; in cap 0.3-0.8(1.2)cm thick at disc, very pale pink-white or yellow-white, when wet often developing a 0.1-0.3cm wide dark brown band adjacent to gills, in stem firm, pale cream to pale pinkish white

Gills:
free to narrowly attached, crowded when young, close when mature (gills + subgills 11-30 per centimeter at cap edge, 9-20 per centimeter at midpoint), subgills in 3-7 irregularly intermixed tiers, narrow when young, broader to 1cm when mature, ventricose, thin; orange-cream when young, orange tones later obscured by cinnamon spores; "even young edges soon becoming serrulate" [finely toothed]

Stem:
2.5-6(10.5)cm above ground, combined with pseudorhiza up to or greater than 30cm, 0.6-1.5(1.8)cm wide at top, central to off-center, swollen and ventricose when immature, more or less equal to ground level when mature, unbranched pseudorhiza vertical-monopodial, up to 5/6 of overall length, gradually narrowing "to a fleshy narrow straight or loosely coiled blunt origin", stem stuffed, cartilaginous rind 0.2-0.4cm thick; top generally colored as gills, pale cream or pinkish white when young, often flushed with orange when old, lower stem "grading to tawny with a characteristic dingy vinaceous tinge above and below ground level", pseudorhiza "vinaceous to tawny above a pale buff to salmon origin", dried stems distinctly burgundy; surface of stem dry, appressed-fibrillose under hand lens with occasional detached fibrils, longitudinally lined, (Norvell(2)), "occasionally swollen and ventricose when young"; "always burgundy flushed above and below ground level", (Norvell(11))

Veil:
occasionally evident as fibrillose patches on the part of the stem above the ground or on young cap margin

Odor:
distinctly cucumber-farinaceous when cut or crushed, also referred to as watermelon-like

Taste:
somewhat unpleasant and often bitter, reminiscent of bitter cucumbers

Microscopic spores:
spores 9 x 5.5 +/- 0.3 x 0.4 microns, range 8.4-9.2(10) x 5-6(6.5) microns, fusoid-elliptic in face view, almond-shaped to lemon-shaped with inconspicuous to pronounced apical beak in side view, round in cross-section or slightly compressed in end view, verruculose to verrucose except on the 1 to 1.5 micron long mammiform beaked apex and eccentric apiculus, amber or orange-amber in KOH, paler in water, weakly dextrinoid in Melzer''s reagent; basidia (2)4-spored, projecting up to 10 microns above developing hymenium, 29-35(40) x 7-8 microns, colorless; pleurocystidia absent; cheilocystidia abundant, emanating from gill trama to form a distinct gelatinous layer, lengths variable, from very short to more than 45 microns long, 2-5 microns wide with apex usually only slightly swollen, cylindric to narrowly clavate, thin-walled, walls heavily gelatinized, usually colorless, "occasionally with pale yellowish oily contents", "often developing long filamentous apical outgrowths in extreme age or after long storage", often with medallion clamp connections; cap cuticle a 2-layered ixocutis with a 150-400 micron thick suprapellis of radially aligned, cylindric, narrow (3-5 microns), colorless hyphae with medallion clamp connections, "this layer loosely embedded in a clear gelatinous matrix" and overlying a moderately thick (120-300 microns) orange subpellis of inflated hyphae (5-12 microns wide), intercellular and intraparietal pigments present; tibiiform diverticula abundant on mycelia and primordial and pseudorhizal pelli, frequent on pellicular sheath remnants on stem top, 4-20 x 0.5-1 microns, colorless, highly refractive, "aseptate, with or without (sub)globose head and (or) apical droplet"; clamp connections frequent to abundant, "medallion-like, readily visible on suprapellicular hyphae and cheilocystidia, less visible but present at basidial bases", "also present in tramal tissues and stipitipellis"

Spore deposit:
pale cinnamon brown ("pinkish cinnamon" Ridgway(1) color)

Notes:
Collections were examined from BC, WA, OR, and CA, (Norvell(2)). It was identified from about 50 localities (Norvell(11)).

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