Pileus conical or bell-shaped, then expanded, rather fleshy, viscid, margin at first straight and pressed to the stem. Gills free, rounded behind. Stem somewhat cartilaginous, its substance different from that of the pileus.
Growing on wood.
Spores rust or saffron color. Pluteus, the only genus having the same structure, is separated by its salmon-colored spores.
Pluteolus reticulatus.
About natural size.
P. reticula´tus Pers.—rete, a net. From the net-work of veins on the pileus. Pileus slightly fleshy, bell-shaped, then expanded, sticky, reticulate with anastomosing veins, pale violaceous, striate on the margin. Lamellæ free, ventricose, crowded, rusty-saffron. Stem hollow, fragile, fibrillose, mealy at the top, white. Spores elliptical, ferruginous, 10–13×5–6.5µ.
Pileus 1–2 in. broad. Stem 1–2 in. long, 1–2 lines thick.
Decaying wood. Cattaraugus county. September.
The specimens which I have referred to this species appear to be a small form with the pileus scarcely more than an inch broad and merely wrinkled on the disk, not distinctly reticulate as in the type. In the dried specimens the pileus has assumed a dark violaceous color. The dimensions of the spores have been taken from the American plant. I do not find them given by any European author. Peck, 46th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.