Summary:
The Phaeocollybias in the Pacific Northwest that belong to the Phaeocollybia kauffmanii complex as described by Norvell(9) have 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. In the field Phaeocollybia kauffmanii is differentiated from the others by its much brighter (almost orange when young), viscid cap that never develops ochraceous (as P. luteosquamulosa) or drab (as P. benzokauffmanii) tones. Other characters include the vinaceous red-brown acute umbo and metallic copper margin of the dried cap, relatively small spores (averaging 8.5 x 5 microns), narrowly clavate cheilocystidia, a strong magenta reaction in syringaldazine, pileal suprapellicular hyphae embedded in a thick gelatinous colorless matrix, encrusting pigments in the subpellis, and the absence of clamp connections in cap and gill tissues. (Norvell(2)). Gills are crowded, when very young pale buff, and darker as they mature. |The Phaeocollybia kauffmanii complex sensu stricto comprises at least 8 species that share the six characters, (with an earlier enumeration of collections in parentheses): P. kauffmanii (149), P. benzokauffmanii (20), P. redheadii (109), P. ammiratii (89), P. luteosquamulosa (23), P. ochraceocana (16 in Norvell(9)), P. lilacifolia, and P. gregaria. P. tibiikauffmanii (43 in a separate count), P. oregonensis, and P. spadicea possess the first four of the six characters and are included in the Phaeocollybia kauffmanii complex sensu lato. (Norvell(9)). The description below is derived from Norvell(2). It is one of the commoner Phaeocollybias in the Pacific Northwest.

Cap:
(3)4.5-15(19.5)cm across, "conic-convex and usually sharply minutely papillate when young", expanding to broadly bell-shaped with broad low umbo and slightly downcurved or occasionally uplifted margin, the edge remaining inrolled; "pristine caps most often zonate with deep orange-brown or bright brownish orange disc", pale to bright brownish orange margin, and deep yellow-brown or orange-brown edge, occasionally +/- uniformly deep orange-brown or bright brownish orange overall, blackish or deep brown where damaged, dried cap generally reddish copper, often with darker vinaceous or blackish pointed disc; viscid to heavily glutinous, bald, smooth, opaque, not striate

Flesh:
0.3-1cm thick at disc, firm; "when young pale yellow cream or smoky pink", when wet often developing a 0.1-0.3cm wide brown zone next to gills or between otherwise confluent cap flesh and stem flesh; in stem "firm, pale light pink or dull ivory, turning deep orange-brown when crushed or cut", long, narrow, yellow-brown or orange-brown lines occasionally visible when water-soaked

Gills:
"free or sometimes attached by a small tooth", crowded when young, becoming subcrowded when old, gills + subgills 13-38 per centimeter at edge, 8-20 per centimeter at midpoint, subgills in 5-7 tiers with 2-6 interspersed, gills "narrow when young, becoming very broad when mature", to 2cm broad, ventricose with end nearest stem almost truncate, thin, occasionally forked; pale buff when very young, darker as maturing, and dull smoky golden brown when old; edges uneven to slightly serrulate [finely toothed], eroded when old

Stem:
4.0-6.0(11.0) above ground, combined length with pseudorhiza up to 40cm, 0.9-2.5cm wide at top, usually widening to 1-3.7cm above ground before narrowing downwards to the pseudorhiza, stem central to slightly eccentric, round in cross-section, cartilaginous rind 0.1-0.3cm thick, unbranched pseudorhiza vertical-monopodial, generally 2/3 to 5/6 of overall length, gradually tapering to blunt origin; top of stem pale yellow-brown or buff when young, developing darker tones when mature, in lower part darkening to deep orange brown, when cut staining orange then brown, pseudorhiza overall deep red or orange brown, or paler at the origin; stem surface moist, matte-smooth, appressed-fibrillose (hand lens) with fine longitudinal striations

Veil:
when present as scattered fibrils or scant fibrillose patches on stem top

Odor:
mildly to strongly farinaceous, occasionally not distinctive

Taste:
slightly to strongly farinaceous, occasionally slightly bitter

Microscopic spores:
spores 8.5 x 5 +/- 0.4 x 0.2 microns, overall range 7.5-10 x 4-6 microns, fusoid-elliptic or almost naviculate [boat-shaped] in face view, inequilaterally almond-shaped or lemon-shaped in side view, terete [round in cross-section] to slightly compressed, verruculose to verrucose except on the 0.5-1.5 micron long mammiform beaked apex and eccentric prominent apiculus, medium pale to dark amber in KOH, pale yellow-amber in water, and dextrinoid in Melzer''s reagent; basidia (2-)4-spored, 30-38 x 6-7(10) microns, clavate, colorless; pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia abundant, emanating from gill trama to form a dense highly gelatinous layer, irregularly cylindric or narrowly clavate, isolated cheilocystidia sometimes catenate, terminal lengths variable (up to 50 microns), septa 2-4 microns in diameter, in mature fruitbodies these elements intermixed with (occasionally) broadly clavate or (very rarely) subcapitate (to 6 microns diameter) pedicellate elements, all elements thin-walled, highly gelatinized, colorless or (in older fruitbodies) with oily pale amber or brownish contents, "often developing long filamentous apical outgrowths in very old or stored fresh specimens"; pileipellis a 2-layered ixocutis with very thick (200-700 microns) suprapellis of long, branching, cylindric, narrow (2-4 microns), thin-walled, highly gelatinized, colorless hyphae with refractive septa, this layer embedded in a thick colorless gelatinous matrix and overlying a much thinner (60-180 microns) dull orange brown to yellow orange subpellis with inflated hyphae (up to 12 microns from 3-5 microns wide septa) and encrusting, intraparietal and intercellular pigments; tibiiform diverticula abundant on mycelia and primordial and pseudorhizal pelli and frequent on pellicular sheath remnants on stem apex, up to 15(20) x 1 microns, colorless to slightly straw-colored, "highly refractive with no septum between base and hypha, with or without (sub)globose head and (or) apical droplet"; clamp connections (true and false ones) rare to occasional in stipitipellis and pseudorhizal cells, absent in all other tissues, (Norvell(2)), important microscopic characteristics include 1) large, moderately roughened lemon-shaped spores with pronounced beaks, 2) thin-walled, narrowly clavate cheilocystidia, 3) occasional true and false clamp connections in stem cuticle and pseudorhiza, and 4) a 2-layered cap cuticle "with top-layer hyphae loosely embedded in a thick colorless gelatinous matrix overlying a brownish orange subpellis with weakly encrusting pigments", (Norvell(11))

Spore deposit:
cinnamon brown ("cinnamon", "buckthorn brown")

Notes:
Collections were examined from BC, WA, OR, ID, and CA (Norvell(2)). It is known from about 150 sites (90 believed still extant) in the Pacific Northwest and California, (Norvell(11)). It has also been reported also from Mexico and the eastern United States, (Norvell(11)).

EDIBILITY

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Naucoria kauffmanii A.H. Sm.