In mixed woods. Rock City, Dutchess county. October.
It is a large fine fungus, easily known by its white and yellowish hues, its crowded gills, viscid stem and peculiar penetrating almost alkaline odor. The cuticle of the pileus is thin and soft to the touch, but it sometimes cracks longitudinally and is sometimes slightly adorned with innate fibrils. A. dehiscens is said to have a viscid stem, but it is also squamose and the pileus is yellowish-ochraceous. Peck, 44th Rep N.Y. State Bot.
Quite common in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. McIlvaine.
It loses its strong odor when cooked and is equal to other Armillaria in edibility. Unless well cooked it has a slight saponaceous flavor. This is easily overcome by a few drops of lemon juice or sherry.
A. appendicula´ta Pk.—bearing an appendicula or small appendage. Pileus broadly convex, glabrous, whitish, often tinged with rust color or brownish rust color on the disk. Flesh white or whitish. Gills close, rounded behind, whitish. Stem equal or slightly tapering upward, solid, bulbous, whitish, the veil either membranous or webby, white, commonly adhering in fragments to the margin of the pileus. Spores subelliptical, 8×5µ.
Pileus 2–4 in. broad. Stem 1.5–3.5 in. long; 5–10 lines thick.
Auburn, Ala. October. C.F. Baker.
The general appearance of this species is suggestive of Tricholoma album, but the presence of a veil separates it from that fungus and places it in the genus Armillaria. The veil, however, is often slightly lacerated or webby and adherent to the margin of the pileus. Peck, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, Vol. 24.
Mt. Gretna, Pa., Angora, Pa. On decaying roots in ground. August to November. Found plentifully in resorts of other Armillaria. Edibility the same. McIlvaine.
A. pondero´sa Pk.—ponderosus, weighty, ponderous. Pileus thick, compact, convex or subcampanulate, smooth, white or yellowish, the naked margin strongly involute beneath the slightly viscid, persistent veil. Gills crowded, narrow, slightly emarginate, white inclining to cream color. Stem stout, subequal, firm, solid, coated by the veil, colored like the pileus, white and furfuraceous above the ring. Flesh white. Spores nearly globose, 4µ in diameter.