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.

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]

Notes:
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.

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