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Species Information
Summary: {See also Pholiota growing on Burnt Wood or Ground Table.} Matheny(13) presented molecular evidence for the synonymy of this species with Pholiota highlandensis. Features include 1) small size, 2) a conic to bell-shaped, viscid cap that is tawny in center and pallid over marginal area, but covered with dark russet fine scales, the cap skin tough and separable, 3) crowded pallid gills that become dull cinnamon with pallid edges, 4) a stem that is pallid at the top but the lower part covered with concentric zones of dark russet veil material, 5) growth on burned ground, and 6) microscopic characters. The description is derived from Smith(3) except where noted.
The type is from ID. It has been reported from BC (Redhead(5) p.7). There are collections from BC by Paul Kroeger at the University of British Columbia. There are collections from WA and ID at the University of British Columbia.
Cap: 1-2cm across, conic expanding to broadly conic or conic - bell-shaped; tawny in center and pallid over marginal area; viscid cap skin is tough and separable, surface covered with superficial, dark russet squamules [fine scales] representing the remains of the universal veil, slowly becoming bald
Flesh: pliant; pallid
Gills: broadly adnate, crowded; pallid becoming dull cinnamon, edges pallid and even
Stem: 1-2cm x 0.3-0.4cm, narrowing downward, solid; ground color "pallid but so densely covered by concentric zones of dark russet veil material as to almost obscure the ground color" except at top
Veil: russet-colored universal veil leaves fine scales on cap and dense concentric zones on stem except at top
Odor: not distinctive
Taste: not distinctive
Microscopic spores: spores 6-7.5 x 4-4.5 microns, ovate to elliptic in face view, elliptic to obscurely inequilateral in side view, minute apical germ pore, cinnamon brown in KOH, paler and brighter rusty brown in Melzer''s reagent, wall about 0.25 microns thick, [presumably smooth]; basidia 4-spored, 18-24 x 5-7 microns, clavate, colorless to pale yellow in KOH; pleurocystidia abundant, 33-46 x 9-16 microns, ''fusoid-ventricose to utriform (apex rounded in some), thin-walled, yellowish in KOH, content "colloidal" but merely yellowish in Melzer''s reagent'', colorless when fresh, smooth, cheilocystidia similar to pleurocystidia; caulocystidia scattered near stem apex, similar to pleurocystidia or larger; clamp connections present
Spore deposit: [presumably brownish]
Habitat / Range
type on burned (partially) chip dirt, (Smith), in groups in burned areas in fall (Scates)
Similar Species
According to Scates(2) and Smith(3), there are six others that favor burned areas: Pholiota brunnescens (yellow veil, thicker stem), Pholiota carbonaria (fiery red or ferruginous veil instead of dark russet, cap lighter in color), Pholiota highlandensis (whitish to buff veil), Pholiota molesta (white veil that becomes dingy brownish orange and separates into zones and patches on stem, pale pinkish-buff young cap that develops a reddish or brownish flush), Crassisporium funariophilum (pallid veil, spore walls 0.5-1.8 microns), and Pholiota subsaponacea (dull cinnamon veil, unpleasant taste).
