Densely cespitose. Caps and stems brown, glutinous and so incrusted with sand that it is almost impossible to clean them. Edible, but not desirable.
C. lacca´ta Scop.—made of lac. (Plate [XXIV], fig. 10, p. 82.) Pileus thin, fleshy, convex, sometimes expanded, even or slightly umbilicate, smooth or minutely tomentose-scaly, hygrophanous when moist, dull reddish-yellow or reddish flesh-colored, sometimes striatulate when dry, pallid or pale dull ochraceous. Gills broad, rather thick and distant, attached, not decurrent, flesh-colored. Stem slender, firm, fibrous, stuffed, equal, concolorous.
Height 1–6 in., breadth of pileus 6 lines to 2 in. Common. June to October.
An extremely variable and abundant species occurring almost everywhere throughout the season. Peck, 23d Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
Spores 8–9µ Massee; 8–10µ B.
Var. pallidifo´lia Pk.—pallidus, pale; foliumaf. Gills whitish or pallid, decurrent.
Var. stria´tula Pk.—stria, a furrow. Pileus moist, smooth, thin, showing shading radiating lines, extending from near the center to the margin. In wet or damp places.
A form occurs with a decidedly bulbous base. Gills appearing emarginate with a decurrent tooth.
Clitocybe laccata is made the type of a new genus by Berkeley and Broome. Massee accepts the genus but it is not generally accepted by the standard authors. It is a well defined genus, and a fitting place for C. laccata, C. amethystina, C. ochropurpurea, C. tortilis, which it puzzles anyone to identify as Clitocybe.
C. amethys´tina Bolt.—amethystinus, color of an amethyst. (Plate [XXIV], fig. 8, p. 82.) Pileus 1–2½ in. across, dark-purple, umbilicate, smooth, minutely tomentose, involute. Gills dark-purple, decurrent, broad. Stem 2–3 in. high, fibrillose, purple, streaked with white fibrils, equal, densely covered with white tomentum at base.