Spores ellipsoid, 7–8x4–5µ K.; 4x5µ W.G.S.; 8x4µ Massee.
On trunks of trees, on and near stumps, etc. Common. August to December.
West Virginia, 1881–1885, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. On rotten wood and stumps. August to long after frost. McIlvaine.
Edible. Curtis.
The American species, as I have repeatedly found it, is not so large as given in the European description, and the habitat is more closely confined to the trunks of standing trees and stumps not much decayed. It is a showy species, to be seen from afar off, especially after the leaves fall. Taste when young, raw, is sweet, mealy; when mature, like stale lard.
Cooked, the caps are of good substance and flavor. One of the very best.
P. squarrosoi´des Pk.—squarrosus, scurfy; eidos, form. Pileus firm, convex, viscid when moist, at first densely covered by erect papillose or subspinose tawny scales, which soon separate from each other, revealing the whitish color and viscid character of the pileus. Lamellæ close, emarginate, at first whitish, then pallid or dull cinnamon color. Stem equal, firm, stuffed, rough with thick squarrose scales, white above the thick floccose ring, pallid or tawny below. Spores minute, elliptical, 5×4µ.
Densely cespitose, 3–6 in. high. Pileus 2–4 in. broad. Stem 3–5 lines thick.
Dead trunks and old stumps of maple. Adirondack and Catskill mountains. Autumn.
This is evidently closely related to A. squarrosus, with which it has, perhaps, been confused, but its different colors and viscid pileus appear to warrant its separation. Peck, 31st Rep. N.Y. State Bot.