Pileus fleshy, with a wide thin margin, hemispherical or convex, then expanded or depressed, viscid when moist, widely striate-tuberculate on the margin, dull pale yellow or straw color. Lamellæ rather broad, close, venose-connected, some of them forked, whitish. Stipe nearly cylindrical, whitish, hollow. Spores white. Plant sometimes cespitose.
Height 2–4 in.; breadth of pileus 2–3 in. Stipe 4–6 lines thick.
Pine woods. West Albany. October.
Taste mild at first, then slightly disagreeable. Peck, 23d Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
Spores minute, echinulate, almost globular, 8µ W.G.S.; 8–10µ Massee.
In woods. Common. July to October.
Var. granula´ta has the pileus rough with small granular scales. Peck, Rep. 39.
A very coarse and easily recognized species. Reckoned poisonous, though eaten by slugs. W.G.S.
The verdict is against it. Both smell and taste are usually unpleasant. Cooked it retains its flavor, more closely resembling wild cherry bark than anything else. On two occasions I ate enough to convince me that it was not poisonous.
R. el´egans Bresad.—elegans, pretty. Mild at first, becoming acrid with age. Pileus 2–3 in. across. Flesh rather thick; convex then depressed; margin tuberculose and striate when old, viscid, bright rosy flesh-color, soon ochraceous at the circumference, everywhere densely granulated. Gills adnexed or slightly rounded, narrow behind, very much crowded, equal, rarely forked, whitish, becoming either entirely or here and there ochraceous-orange. Stem 1½-2 in. long, 5–7 lines thick, a little thickened at the base, rather rugulose, white, base ochraceous. Flesh white, turning ochraceous and acrid when old.