Summary:
Section Hispidoderma. Features include small size, a hygrophanous yellow to ocher cap with a velvety surface, free gills that are yellow or with yellow edges, a white stem that soon becomes yellow often with some brown, habitat on hardwood, and a pinkish spore deposit. According to Desjardin(6), recent molecular data indicate that Pluteus flavofuligineus is a synonym of P. leoninus. But D. Miller (pers. comm.) later wrote, "A sequence from Idaho matches close enough with European sequences that Justo called it the same species. Sequences from Salem, Oregon and the Washington/Idaho border are a little further away and may or may not represent the real species or a sister species".

Cap:
(2)2.5-4(7)cm across, conic - bell-shaped when young, later convex to flat, often with small umbo, margin sharp; "slightly hygrophanous, gold-yellow with a brown-yellow center and with a striate marginal zone when moist, light brownish-yellow and non-striate when dry", "smooth, dull, finely tomentose-granulose under a hand lens", (Breitenbach), up to 3.5cm across, hygrophanous, "yellow with a bit of velvety reddish brown crown"; striped margin, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen), up to 6cm across, lion-colored, gold-yellow, or olive-yellow, crown and margin often brown; margin sulcate, (Moser)

Flesh:
thin; whitish, yellow under cap surface, (Breitenbach), thin; yellow, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen)

Gills:
free, 47-60 reaching stem, 1-3 subgills between each pair of gills, gills broad; white when young, sometimes gold-yellow toward cap margin, later pink; edges whitish-ciliate [fringed], (Breitenbach), free, broad; yellow then pink, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen), sometimes with yellowish shine, (Moser)

Stem:
4-5(9)cm x 0.2-0.4(0.6)cm, cylindric, solid becoming hollow, elastic; "white when young, later yellow to olive-yellow, especially toward the base"; smooth, "faintly longitudinally white-fibrillose", (Breitenbach), up to 3.5cm long and 0.5cm wide, hollow, base a bit enlarged; yellowish with some brown, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen), pale, in lower part yellowish or brownish; fibrous-striate, (Moser)

Veil:
[absent]

Odor:
faintly radish-like (Breitenbach)

Taste:
mild, insipid, (Breitenbach)

Microscopic spores:
spores 6.5-8.1 x 4.8-6.7 microns, broadly elliptic, smooth; basidia 4-spored, 20-37 x 7.5-10 microns, cylindric-ventricose, without basal clamp connection; pleurocystidia not abundant (in some collections absent), 35-80 x 12-22 microns, "fusiform-lageniform, some with apical outgrowths", cheilocystidia 25-55 x 9-15 microns, fusiform to somewhat cylindric; cap cuticle with radial hyphae, with ascending fusiform hyphal ends in cap center, 90-300 x 12-30 microns, with yellowish pigmentation, septa without clamp connections, (Breitenbach), cheilocystidia 80 x 10 microns, fusoid, crowding gill edge; cap cuticle of narrow hyphae with yellowish contents, terminal cells fusoid 160-200 x 6-10 microns, (Hansen), spores 6-7 x 5-6 microns, (Moser)

Spore deposit:
pinkish-brown (Schalkwijk-Barendsen), brown-red (Breitenbach)

Notes:
Pluteus leoninus has been reported by Schalkwijk-Barendsen from BC who says it is also reported from the prairie provinces of Canada. It has been reported also by Oluna Ceska for BC (collections at the University of British Columbia). Siegel(2) include it for CA. It is mentioned in several other North American field guides, and also found in Europe.

EDIBILITY

yes (Bessette)