Very variable in size and in color when wet and dry. The color of gills and spores readily distinguishes it in its habitats. From spring to frost it can usually be gathered in quantity. It is small, tender, shrivels in cooking, but makes a savory, excellent dish.
Var. obscurior found cespitose on very old manure at a ruined stable, Mt. Gretna, Pa., August. McIlvaine.
G. fla´va Pk.—flavus, yellow. Pileus membranous, ovate or bell shaped, moist or subhygrophanous, obtuse, plicate striate on the margin, yellow. Lamellæ thin, narrow, crowded, adnate, at first whitish, then yellowish-cinnamon. Stem equal or slightly tapering upward, hollow, slightly striate at the top, sprinkled with white mealy particles, white or yellowish. Spores ovate or subelliptical, brownish-rust-color, 13×8µ.
Pileus 6–12 lines broad. Stem 2–3 in. long, 1–1.5 lines thick.
Damp vegetable mold in woods. Tompkins county. July.
This species is well marked by the pale-yellow color of the pileus and its plicate striations which are very distinct even in the dried specimens. They extend half way to the disk or more. When dry the pileus is seen to be sprinkled with shining atoms as in some other species of the same genus. Occasionally the yellow cuticle cracks into squamules or small scales. Peck, 46th Rep.
Trenton, N.J., Sterling; Haddonfield, N.J.; Pennsylvania. Among chips in woods and on woods ground. McIlvaine.
This species is frequent, and when plentiful well worth gathering. It has a more woody flavor than other Galera, but is tasty.
G. vittæfor´mis Fr.—vitta, a chaplet; forma, form. Pileus ½-1 in. broad, date-brown when moist, membranaceous, conical then hemispherical, obtuse, even at the disk, striate toward the margin, smooth. Stem 1½-3 in. long, ½-1 line thick, tubular, equal, somewhat straight, but not tense and straight, smooth or sometimes pubescent, slightly striate under a lens, opaque, rust-color. Veil scarcely conspicuous. Gills adnate, broader at the middle, in the form of a segment when larger, somewhat ascending, somewhat distant, at first watery-cinnamon, at length rust-color. Fries.
Spores elliptical, 12×6µ Massee.