Taste bitter. The form on wood is somewhat horizontal, gregarious here and there imbricated. Stevenson.
Spores 9–10×4µ Massee; 8×4µ W.G.S.; minutely globose, 3–4µ Peck.
Edible. Cooke, Cordier.
P. spathula´tus Pers.—shaped like a spathula. Pileus rather thin, 1–2 in. broad, ascending, spathulate, tapering behind into the stem, glabrous, convex or depressed on the disk and there sometimes pubescent, alutaceous or brownish tinged with gray, red or yellow. Gills crowded, linear, decurrent, whitish or yellowish. Stem compressed, sometimes channeled above, grayish-tomentose. Spores elliptical, 7.6×4–5µ broad; odor and taste farinaceous.
Ground. Sandlake. June. Edible.
It grows singly or in tufts and is an inch or more in height. The margin is thin and sometimes striatulate and reflexed. Toward the base the flesh is thicker than the breadth of the gills. The cuticle is tough and separable. The flesh is said by Gillet to be tender and delicate. Persoon describes the disk as spongy-squamulose, but in our specimens it is merely pubescent or tomentose. Peck, 39th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
Recorded as edible by Professor Peck. At Eagle’s Mere, Pa., I found many specimens agreeing with this description. They grew from decaying wood under ground, yet had the appearance of growing from the earth. It is probable that others have been deceived. In quality I found this to be one of the best.
P. sero´tinus Fr.—late. Pileus fleshy, 1–3 in. broad, compact, convex or nearly plane, viscid when young and moist, dimidiate kidney-shaped or suborbicular, solitary or cespitose and imbricated, variously colored, dingy-yellow, reddish-brown, greenish-brown or olivaceous, the margin at first involute. Gills close, determinate, whitish or yellowish. Stem very short, lateral, thick, yellowish beneath and minutely tomentose or squamulose with blackish points. Spores minute, elliptical, 5µ long, 2.5µ broad.
Dead trunks of deciduous trees. Peck, 39th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
Mt. Gretna, Pa., 1887, and at Mt. Moriah, near Philadelphia, from August until November, 1898. Upon these findings the pileus was tomentose at base, as was the short stem.