West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina. On oak, chestnut stumps and growing from tree roots in ground. October to December. McIlvaine.
(See [H. perplexum], [H. sublateritium] and compare descriptions.)
This species, in common with its allies, is extremely hard to determine. When growing singly from roots or from ground heavily charged with decaying wood, it is a sturdy, solid plant; when in clusters the stem is longer, more flexible and the whole character of the plant is modified. Except for botanic purposes there is no occasion to puzzle over it. It is in every way an excellent and useful fungus.
H. disper´sus Fr.—dispergo, to scatter. Pileus 1–1½ in. broad, tawny-honey-color, not hygrophanous, slightly fleshy, bell-shaped then convex, at length expanded, even, superficially silky round the margin with the veil, or squamulose, otherwise even and smooth. Flesh thin, a little paler than the pileus. Stem 2 in. or a little more long, 2 lines thick, tubed, equal, tense and straight, tough, fibrilloso-silky, somewhat rust-colored, becoming dingy-brown at the base, pale at the apex. Gills adnate, thin, ventricose, broad, 3–4 lines, crowded, at first pallid-straw color, at length crowded, obsoletely green. Fries.
Gills broader than H. fascicularis, etc. Solitary, scarcely ever cespitose. On pine stumps and the ground. April to November.
Spores elliptical, 7×3–4µ Massee.
North Carolina, in pine woods, Curtis; California, H. and M.; West Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, New Jersey, McIlvaine.
Difficult to distinguish from H. fascicularis when growing solitary. Its edible qualities are precisely the same.
H. elæo´des Fr. Gr—an olive; Gr—eidos, appearance. Pileus brick-red or tan, fleshy, rather plane, somewhat umbonate, dry, smooth, opaque. Flesh yellow. Stem stuffed then hollow, equal, commonly slender, incurved or flexuous, fibrillose, of the same color as the pileus, becoming rust-color. Gills adnate, crowded, thin, green then pure olivaceous.
Cespitose. Odor bitter. On trunks and on the ground. Fries.