Summary:
Features include 1) a viscid, drab-brown to grayish cap that is conic-convex to broadly bell-shaped with an umbo, 2) smoky-white to dark yellowish brown gills, 3) a stem that is dry, stuffed with firm dense white pith, and grayish pink or drab, turning grayish reddish brown upwards from the ground level, 4) an unbranching pseudorhiza, 5) a dull yellowish cinnamon spore deposit, 6) microscopic characters including small, virtually smooth spores, thin-walled, narrowly clavate cheilocystidia that develop apical outgrowths, and absent clamp connections, and 7) an immediate magenta reaction of tissues to syringaldazine, (Norvell(3)). It is a member of the Phaeocollybia kauffmanii complex sensu lato, possessing the first four of six characteristics used by Norvell(9) to describe that complex 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). The description is from Norvell(3) unless otherwise noted. It is uncommon to rare.

Cap:
(2)3-8(11)cm across, conic-convex with inrolled margin when young, expanding to broadly conic - bell-shaped with sharply conic-subacute umbo, straight margins, and incurved to straight edges; slightly hygrophanous, some shade of drab gray or purplish brown, very rarely reddish brown, when dry reddish brown to orange-brown; "subviscid to viscid or occasionally glutinous (under wet conditions)", bald, opaque, (Norvell(3)), 5-11cm across, conic with inrolled margin, expanding to flat-umbonate with a sharply conic umbo and a downcurved to spreading margin; dark reddish-brown to dull liver brown [Norvell(3) says these colors appear to have been inaccurately recorded], paler when faded or old; bald, slimy-viscid; margin opaque, (Smith), 2-7(11)cm across, convex with incurved margin becoming flat with acute umbo and straight margin; some shade of drab-brown or gray-brown; bald, viscid to glutinous, (Castellano), "some shade of drab to pinkish or purplish brown", dried cap matte red-brown to orange-brown; cap surface viscid to glutinous, (Norvell(11))

Flesh:
thick, up to 0.7cm, and pallid in young unexpanded caps, soon thin, cartilaginous, and colored as cap surface, (Norvell(3)), creamy to pink-white; pith in stem generally firm and dense, unchanging or staining slightly brown, (Castellano), stem "persistently stuffed with firm pallid pith that turns orange-brown on exposure", cartilaginous rind about 0.2cm thick, (Norvell(11))

Gills:
narrowly attached to free, crowded, 3-7 tiers of truncate subgills regularly to irregularly interspersed, gills narrow to broad, 0.3-1cm broad, ventricose, thin; smoky-white when young, "becoming yellowish buff before obscured by light yellowish brown spores"; edges even when young to serrulate or eroded when old, (Norvell(3)), narrowly attached to top of stem, but pulling away in drying, close, broad; strong yellowish-brown ("clay-color" Ridgway(1) color) when old or when dried, (Smith), free; gray-white, becoming more drab when old and darker with spores, (Castellano)

Stem:
4-8.5cm long, up to 21cm including pseudorhiza, (0.4)0.7-1.6(2)cm wide at top, central to slightly eccentric, stuffed, "usually equal or narrowing downwards, rarely swollen from proliferating pith", pseudorhiza vertical-monopodial (unbranched), up to 1/2 to 3/4 of overall length, gradually narrowing to blunt, nippled, or curled origin; stem grayish pink or drab (most frequently "avellaneous" or "vinaceous buff"), at top, turning to grayish reddish brown ("cacao" or "walnut brown") upward from ground level, pseudorhiza grayish to dark reddish brown ("cacao brown" to "chestnut"); stem surface dry, longitudinally striate, (Norvell(3)), 8-15cm x 1-2cm, tapering to long pseudorhiza, soon stained vinaceous-red overall, when dried purplish red-brown; naked, (Smith), 2-6(7.5)cm x 0.7-1.2(1.6)cm, more or less equal, to 30.4cm including pseudorhiza, stuffed; top gray-tan grading into brown and orange-brown or purple-brown in lower part; dry to slightly moist, (Castellano), stem bruising orange-brown, color of pseudorhiza "dark gray- to reddish brown", (Norvell(11))

Veil:
"occasionally evident as scattered, short, drab fibrillose patches" on the part of stem above ground, (Norvell(3)), absent (Smith)

Odor:
"farinaceous or cucumber-like, developing unpleasant pungent tones when dry", (Norvell(3)), "mild, of cucumbers, or raw potatoes", (Castellano)

Taste:
"usually farinaceous and bitter", (Norvell(3)), mild, sometimes quite bitter, (Castellano)

Microscopic spores:
spores 6.8 x 4 +/- 0.2 microns, (range of means 6.3-7.2 x 3.6-4.1 microns, overall range 5.4-7.5 x 3.5-5 microns), in face view elliptic to slightly obovate with a tapered bluntly rounded apex giving a bullet shape, in side view distinctly inequilateral (adaxially nearly flat, abaxially convex with somewhat rounded cone-shaped apex), with small but conspicuous eccentric apiculus, "virtually smooth to punctate roughened (ornamentation not visibly projecting in profile)", relatively thin-walled for Phaeocollybia, absent germ pore, golden brown in KOH, young spores with thinner exosporium visibly dextrinoid in Melzer''s reagent; basidia 4-spored, 28-36 x 6-6.5 microns, narrowly clavate, colorless to slightly brownish at base in older specimens; pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia generally narrowly clavate (filamentous), emanating from gill trama, 12-36 x 5-6(8) microns on slightly narrower pedicels (2-4 microns), "and with penultimate elements often swelling below terminal septa, thin-walled, smooth", colorless, developmental filamentous apical extensions observed in old or stored fruiting bodies; cap cuticle a 2-layered ixocutis, suprapellis moderately thick at (30)100-200 microns, gelatinous, diminishing when old or when weather-affected, composed of repent hyphae 2-5 microns wide, "gelatinized, with refractive septa and embedded in a gelatinous matrix", subpellis 50-200 microns thick, dull brownish to brownish orange in KOH, composed of slightly thicker-walled and wider elements (6-10 microns wide), with incrusting and intraparietal pigments; clamp connections absent, but tramal hyphae appear to produce occasional to not infrequent pseudoclamps (small branchlets or balloon-like diverticula noted close to or well away from the septa) that could easily be misinterpreted as true clamp connections; tibiiform diverticula up to 20 microns long, 1.5-1.8 microns wide basally, with necks less than 1 micron and with or without a small capitulum and/or apical droplet, "abundant on pseudorhizal and primordial pelli" and also frequent on vestiges of pellicular veil on stem apex, (Norvell(3)), |spores 6-7.5 x 3.5-4.5 microns, nearly smooth, elliptic to ovate in face view, somewhat inequilateral in side view, lacking a distinct beak, dingy ochraceous to brownish in KOH; basidia 4-spored; pleurocystidia none, cheilocystidia 12-30 x 4-8 microns; cap cuticle of gelatinous, colorless, narrow hyphae, possibly a collapsing trichoderm; clamp connections very rare, (Smith), spore ornamentation punctate roughened but visible only under oil at high magnification, spore color in water paler than the golden brown seen in KOH; basidia granular; cheilocystidia abundant, forming a sterile layer with basidia occasionally intermixed; cap cuticle suprapellis containing radially aligned, narrow (2-5 microns wide), colorless hyphae "with refractive septa embedded in a thick gelatinous matrix", in subpellis incrusting and intraparietal pigments are dull brown to brownish orange in KOH; tibiiform diverticula abundant on primordia, pseudorhiza, and veil remnants on stem apex, highly refractive, colorless, (Norvell(11))

Spore deposit:
dull yellowish cinnamon, with more yellowish tones than "cinnamon", darker than "Isabella color", (Norvell(3)), dark red-brown (Castellano)

Notes:
It is known from 12 sites in BC (2), WA (1), and OR (9), (Norvell(11)).

EDIBILITY

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Phaeocollybia carmanahensis Redhead & Norvell