Spores 6.6×3.3µ Morgan; elliptical, smooth, 7×3.5µ Massee.
Agreeable taste and odor, eaten in Europe. Roques.
Edible, tough when old and never very delicate or digestible.—M. C. Cooke.
Not found in sufficient quantity to test.
L. lepi´deus Fr. Gr—scaly. (Plate [XVI], fig. 3, 4, p. 52.) Pileus 2–4 in. broad, pallid-ochraceous, variegated with adpressed, darker, spot-like scales, fleshy, very compact and firm, irregular, commonly excentric, convex then depressed, but not truly umbilicate, sometimes broken up into cracks. Flesh pliant, white. Stem short, commonly 1 in. long, solid, stout, very irregularly formed, almost woody, tomentose-scaly, whitish, rooted at the base, at the first furnished with a veil toward the apex. Gills decurrent, but sinuate behind, crowded broad, transversely striate, whitish, edge torn into teeth.
Odor pleasant. Fries.
Spores 11×5µ W.G.S., 7×3µ. Massee.
Lentinus lepideus is a sort of commercial traveler. It is common wherever railroads are. It is partial to oak ties and its mycelium is injurious to them. It is found upon pine and other timbers. The writer has collected large clusters of it from oak sawdust. The European plant is noted as “almost always solitary.” In the United States it is seldom so. It is noted as growing in damp, dark places, but it loves the sun.
As a food it is about on a par with P. ulmarius, not as tough, but harder when old. It is a reliable species from spring until late autumn, is persistent and dries well. It is neat, handsome, prolific. When young it makes a good dish, and when old can be used to advantage in soups.