Woods and open places. June to frost.
Indiana, H.I. Miller; West Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, McIlvaine.
The C. flava and C. botrytes have long been noted edible species, liberally commended abroad and in the United States. Variations in their structure are interchangeable; variations in their quality are due to environment. There is a slight difference in the measurement of their spores, but the difference is not so great as between spores of the same specimen. Specific differences may exhibit themselves in young plants, yet disappear with age.
Plants for the table should be young and fresh. When aged or when the ravages of insects appear, they should not be used, as they then have an unpleasant taste which will effect a whole dish.
They should be cut into small pieces and stewed slowly for fully thirty minutes. They can be seasoned and eaten as a stew or made into patties.
C. botry´tes Pers. Gr—a cluster of grapes (from shape). Height 3–4 in., 3–6 in. across, white, yellow, pinkish, dingy in shades of these colors. Base thick, short, fleshy, unequal. Branches many, swollen, thick, crowded, unequal, enlarged at the ends and divided into several small branchlets which are sometimes reddish at tips. Flesh white.
Spores ellipsoid, sub-transparent, white, 8×5µ Massee.
On wood earth. Common.
New York, Peck, Rep. 24; West Virginia, New Jersey, McIlvaine.
A general favorite and highly esteemed in Europe. Edible. Curtis.