When young and small P. ulmarius is tender and of acceptable flavor. The stems and centers of older specimens should be cut away, and the tender parts of the caps, only, used.
P. tessula´tus Bull.—tessela, a small cube for pavement. Pileus becoming pale-tawny, horizontal, compactly fleshy, convex then plane, and in a form which is somewhat lateral depressed behind, irregular, even, smooth, variegated with round and hexagonal paler spots. Flesh thick, white. Stem short, 1 in. or little more long, solid, compact, equal or attenuated at the base, very excentric, curved-ascending, even, smooth, white. Gills sinuate behind, uncinato-adnate, thin, crowded, white or becoming yellow.
Solitary; according to some cespitose. The pileus is not cracked in a tessellated manner, as one might easily imagine from the name, but variegated with spots. Smaller than A. ulmarius (to which it is too closely allied), but almost more compact, with a smell of new meal.
On trunks. Stevenson.
North Carolina, Schweinitz. Edible. Curtis. Edible. Cordier.
On specimens growing cespitose and singly, found at Haddonfield, N.J. September, 1895, on trunk of apple tree, and at Eagle’s Mere, Pa., singly on sugar maple, August, 1898, the margin of caps were beautifully marked, but not cracked.
In quality it is better than P. ulmarius.
P. subpalma´tus Fr.—sub and palma, a palm. Pileus 3–5 in. across. Flesh thick, soft, variegated; convex then more or less flattened, irregularly circular, obtuse, wrinkled, smooth, with a gelatinous cuticle, rufescent. Stem excentric or almost lateral, but the pileus is always marginate behind, fibrillose, short, equal, flesh fibrous, soft. Gills adnate, 3–4 lines broad, crowded, joined behind, dingy. Massee.
On old trunks, squared timber, etc.
Very remarkable for having the flesh variegated as in Fistulina hepatica. Pileus, especially when young, covered with a viscid pellicle. Fr.