The genus Flammula is not represented in our territory by a large number of species. It is, nevertheless, not very sharply distinct from the allied genera, Pholiota, Hebeloma and Naucoria. From Pholiota it is especially separated by the slight development of the veil which is merely fibrillose or entirely wanting. It never forms a persistent membranous collar on the stem. From Hebeloma it may be distinguished by the absence of a sinus at or near the inner extremity of the gills, by the absence of white particles or mealiness from the upper part of the stem and by the brighter or more distinctly rusty or ochraceous color of the spores. From Naucoria the fleshy or fibrously fleshy stem affords the most available distinguishing character. The genus belongs to the Ochrosporæ or ochraceous-spored series, but the spores of its species vary in color from ochraceous or tawny-ochraceous to rust-color or brownish-rust color. The three things to be especially kept in mind in order to recognize the species are the color of the spores, the adnate or decurrent but not clearly sinuate gills and the fleshy or fibrously fleshy stem without a membranous ring.
Our species are mostly of medium size, none being very small and one only meriting the appellation large. They appear chiefly in late summer or in autumn and grow in woods or in wooded regions either on the ground or more often on decaying wood. Many are gregarious or cespitose in their mode of growth. Some have a bitterish or unpleasant flavor and none of our species has yet been classed as edible. Fries arranged the species in five groups, of which the names and more prominent characters are here given. Peck, 50th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
The few species which the writer has found to be edible, and the two new species found by him, were tested after the publication of the above. Several of the species found are not mentioned herein for the reason that a sufficient quantity was not obtained to make certain their quality as a food. The bitterness, as far as observed, with which most of the species are tainted disappears in cooking.
Gymno´ti. Veil absent, pileus dry, etc.
F. alie´na Pk. Pileus thin, flexible, broadly convex, umbilicate, dry, bare, slightly striate on the margin when old, grayish or pale grayish-brown. Flesh white, fibrous. Gills thin, subdistant, bow-shaped, decurrent, ochraceous-brown. Stem firm, fibrous-striate, solid, slightly tapering upward, colored like the pileus, covered at the base with a dense white tomentum. Spores rusty-brown, globose, 5µ broad.
Pileus 3–5 cm. broad. Stem 5 cm. long, 4–6 mm. thick.
Gregarious on partly burned anthracite coal, Mt. Gretna, Pa. September. C. McIlvaine.
The species is peculiar in its color and habitat. In the dried specimen the gills have assumed a brown color with no ochraceous tint. Mr. McIlvaine remarks that it is an edible species, dries well, and is excellent when cooked. Its relationship is with F. anomala Pk., but it is a larger plant with darker color and a different habitat. Peck, Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, Vol. 26, F. 1899.
It grows on partly burned anthracite coal, not buried, as printed in the Torrey Bulletin. The mycelium completely involves the pieces of coal, holding them tightly in its meshes. Patches of it were strictly limited to the size of the ash-pile containing the partly burned coal. Quite fifty were found.
As stated, it is edible, and it is of remarkably fine substance for a Flammula.