The caps and stems when young make as good a dish as one cares to eat. The substance is pleasant, and the flavor delicate. They are best stewed slowly in their own fluids, after washing, for ten minutes and seasoned with pepper, salt and butter.
M. parabo´lica Fr.—shaped like a parabola. Pileus becoming black at the disk, inclining to violaceous, otherwise becoming pale, whitish, somewhat membranaceous, at first erect and oval, then parabolic, obtuse, never expanded, moist, somewhat shining when dry, smooth, even, striate toward the entire margin. Stem 2–3 in. long, 1 line thick, tubed, tense and straight but not very rigid, thickened and bearded-rooted at the base, pale below, dark violaceous above, when young white-mealy, otherwise even, smooth, dry. Gills simply adnate, ascending, somewhat distant, rarely connected by veins, quite entire, white, somewhat gray at the base.
Stem less rigid than that of A. galericulatus. Truly gregarious or cespitose. Fries.
Spores 12×6µ B.; elliptical, 11–12×6µ Massee.
Trenton, N.J. June. E.B. Sterling; West Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, on decaying stumps, trunks of oak, chestnut, poplar, pine. June until far into the winter. McIlvaine.
Plant up to 2½ in. high. Caps usually about ½ in., but reaching ¾ in.
A neat, attractive plant, whether single or in dense tufts. Its smell is strong of fresh meal, and taste of that delicate flavor one finds in the succulent base of the round, swamp rush, when pulled from its sheath—one that every country school boy and girl knows. It is pleasant raw, and delicious when cooked.
M. latifo´lia Pk.—latus, broad; folium, a leaf. Pileus convex, rarely somewhat umbonate, striatulate, grayish-brown. Gills white, broad, hooked, decurrent-toothed. Stem slender, smooth, hollow, subconcolorous, white-villous at the base.
Height 1–1.5 in., breadth of pileus 4–6 lines. Stem .5 lines thick.
Under pine trees. Center. October.