Summary:
{See also Pholiota growing on Burnt Wood or Ground Table.} Features include a pale pinkish-buff young cap that develops a reddish or brownish flush, a short, thick stem, a white veil that becomes dingy brownish orange, and separates into zones or patches on the stem: these features differentiate it from other carbon-inhabiting species, (Smith). Matheny(13) present molecular evidence to show that another A.H. Sm. & Hesler species, Pholiota subsaponacea, is a synonym. Smith(3) described P. subsaponacea from one collection in Idaho, emphasizing the very disagreeable persistent taste and the dull cinnamon veil (as opposed to a whitish veil for Pholiota molesta that becomes dingy brownish orange) - these characters are now included in the possible characters for P. molesta. Smith(3) did not find caulocystidia in P. molesta, but Matheny(13) did, and Smith(3) found caulocystidia in P. subsaponacea.

Cap:
2-4cm across, broadly convex with an incurved margin; "pale pinkish-buff" overall when young, developing a reddish or brownish flush when old; thinly glutinous, somewhat virgate [radially streaky], bald except margin for a time fringed with a thin layer of minute veil particles or fibrils near margin

Flesh:
white in cap, watery pallid in stem

Gills:
sinuate to adnate becoming adnexed, narrow, close to crowded; whitish to gray-white, dull cinnamon to wood brown; edges white or colored as sides, (Matheny), adnate, crowded, narrow; pallid like cap, becoming cinnamon-buff to wood-brown, edges colored as faces and even, (Smith)

Stem:
1.5-7.0 x 0.3-1.0cm, equal, hollow; ground color white with pale yellowish brown or cinnamon bands of fibrils or fibrillose scales, "soon rusty over the base (but not within), coated up to the apical veil zone with a dull cinnamon sheath that breaks up into patches, apex whitish and pruinose or silky", (Matheny), 3-7cm x 0.5-1cm, equal or narrowed downward, solid; whitish; at first whitish-fibrillose over all, the fibrillose veil layer separating into zones or patches and becoming dingy brownish orange, ending in a faint ring zone, white and silky above the zone, (Smith)

Veil:
on cap margin when young "with scant fibrillose veil material"; on stem an "apical veil zone", "veil evanescent, brown", (Matheny), whitish veil leaves fibrillose remnants on cap and stem, (Smith)

Odor:
"mild or disagreeable (somewhat soapy farinaceous)", (Matheny), mild, (Smith)

Taste:
"mild or disagreeable (somewhat soapy farinaceous)", (Matheny), fungoid, (Smith(3) for P. molesta), very disagreeable (somewhat soapy farinaceous), (Smith(3) for P. subsaponacea)

Microscopic spores:
spores 6.0-8.0 x 4.0-4.5(5.0) microns, elliptic to ovate in profile, thick-walled (walls about 0.5-0.75 microns thick), yellowish brown, apices obtuse to subconic, "germ pore and apiculus small and indistinct"; basidia 4-spored, 22-30 x 5-6 microns, urniform, colorless; pleurocystidia 45-66 x 10-12 microns, "frequent, projecting easily from the hymenium, fusiform-ventricose to skittle-shaped, with elongated necks, apices obtuse or swollen, thin-walled", colorless, cheilocystidia "similar to pleurocystidia but shorter, often fusiform"; caulocystidia 38-70 x 10-13 microns, cylindric, subcylindric, "slenderly fusiform, or clavate, in tufts or clusters at extreme stipe apex, thin-walled", colorless; clamp connections present, (Matheny), spores 5.5-6.5(7.5) x 3.5-4 microns, elliptic to ovate in face view, somewhat inequilateral in side view, ventral line nearly straight, dorsal wall "humped toward apiculate end or merely convex", spores smooth, no apical germ pore present, dull cinnamon to dull tawny in KOH, pale tawny in Melzer''s reagent, wall about 0.3 microns thick; basidia 4-spored, 24-30 x 4.5-6 microns, colorless in KOH, pale yellowish in Melzer''s reagent; pleurocystidia abundant, 45-66(70) x 8-12(16) microns, fusoid-ventricose with subacute to obtuse apex, wall thin, smooth, and colorless, content homogeneous and colorless, rarely with yellow to brown content, cheilocystidia 28-45 x 8-15 microns, "clavate to subfusoid or fusoid-ventricose", walls thin, smooth, and colorless, content homogeneous and colorless; caulocystidia none found; clamp connections present, (Smith)

Spore deposit:
[presumably a shade of brown]

Notes:
Collections were examined from WA, ID (including holotype of P. molesta and P. subsaponacea), and CA, (Matheny). It was reported from BC (Redhead(5) p.7).

EDIBILITY

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Pholiota subsaponacea A.H. Sm. & Hesler