Photographed by Dr. J.R. Weist. Plate XVa.
LEPIOTA AMERICANA.
In flavor this species is not much inferior to the parasol mushroom, but when cooked in milk or cream it imparts its own reddish color to the material in which it is cooked. It is, however, a fine addition to our list of esculent species. Peck, 49th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
I found several on a decaying willow trunk, and on the ground beside it, in Philadelphia. In July, 1898, large quantities, often clustered, grew under the great, open auditorium of the Pennsylvania Chautauqua, at Mt. Gretna, Pa., from ground covered with crushed limestone.
The caps are meaty and excellent in flavor. They should be broiled or fried.
Granulosi. Pileus granular or warty. Stem sheathed, etc.
L. granulo´sa Batsch.—granosus, full of grains. Pileus thin, convex or nearly plane, sometimes almost umbonate, rough, with numerous granular or branny scales, often radiately wrinkled, rusty-yellow or reddish-yellow, often growing paler with age. Flesh white or reddish-tinged. Gills close, rounded behind and usually slightly adnexed, white. Stem equal or slightly thickened at the base, stuffed or hollow, white above the ring, colored and adorned like the pileus below it. Ring slight, evanescent. Spores elliptical 4–5×3–4µ.
Plant 1–2.5 in. high. Pileus 1–2.5 in. broad. Stem 1–3 lines thick. Woods, copses and waste places. Common. August to October.
This is a small species with a short stem and granular reddish-yellow pileus, and gills slightly attached to the stem, a character by which it differs from all the preceding. The ring is very small and fugacious, being little more than the abrupt termination to the coating of the stem. Peck, 35th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
Spores 5–6×3µ B.; 3×4µ W.G.S.; elliptical, 4–5×3–4µ Peck.