Plant very fragile, 4–6 in. high. Pileus 8–12 lines broad. Stem 1 line thick at the base. Rich ground and dung. Sandlake. August. (Plate [IV], fig. 15–18.) Allied to C. coopertus. Peck, 24th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
West Virginia. 1881–1885, Mt. Gretna, Pa. July to October. McIlvaine.
I have seldom found it, though at times it was quite common about stables in West Virginia. It has good mushroom flavor and is edible. It is stately, attracting attention by its peculiar cap.
C. plica´tilis Fr.—plico, to fold. Pileus 1 in. broad, dusky-brown then bluish-gray-cinereous, disk darker, dusky-brown or reddish, oval-cylindrical then campanulate, soon expanded, opening into furrows, sulcate-plicate, for the most part smooth, disk broad, even, at length depressed. Stem 1–3 in. long, fistulose, thin, equal, even, smooth, pallid, somewhat pellucid. Gills remote from the stem and adnate to a collar which is formed from the dilated apex of the stem, distant, gray-blackish. Fries.
Very tender and fragile, but when scorched by the sun not melting into fluid. Very variable in stature and size. Stevenson.
Spores 12–14×8–10µ Massee; broadly elliptic, 5µ long, M.J.B.; 11–13µ long, 8–10µ broad Peck, Rep. 50.
Common in rich pastures, lawns, roadsides, etc. May to October.
West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, McIlvaine.
A neat little fungus often found in great plenty. Though small it is nevertheless edible and must be written with its edible companions.
