New Jersey, Trenton, E.B. Sterling; North Carolina, Curtis, Schweinitz; Mt. Gretna, Pa. September, 1898. Along road in woods, moist places. McIlvaine.
The species is attractive by its very homeliness and odd individuality. It is not inviting. Cooked it is coarse and resembles L. piperatus. An emergency species.
L. controver´sus Fr.—contra, against; verto, to turn. Pileus 3 in. and more broad, fleshy, compact, rigid, at the first convex, broadly umbilicate, when fuller grown somewhat funnel-shaped, oblique, on emerging from the ground dry, flocculose, whitish, then with rain smooth, viscid, reddish, with blood-colored spots and zones (especially toward the margin), margin acute when young, closely involute, more or less villous. Flesh very firm. Stem commonly 1 in. long and thick, sometimes, however, 2 in. long and then manifestly attenuated toward the base and often excentric, solid, obese, even but pruinate and as if striate at the apex from the obsoletely decurrent tooth of the gills, wholly white, never pitted. Gills decurrent, thin, very crowded, 1–2 lines broad, with many shorter ones intermixed, but rarely branched, pallid-white-flesh-color. Milk white, unchangeable, plentiful. Fries.
Odor weak but pleasant, taste very acrid. Allied to L. piperatus.
In woods. Uncommon. August to October. Stevenson.
Spores echinulate, 8×6µ W.G.S.; globose, rough, 6–8µ Massee.
California, H. and M.
Edible, rather deficient in aroma and flavor. Cooke.
