Plant 4–6 in. high. Pileus 4–6 in. broad. Stem about 1 in. thick.
Ground in woods. Copake, Columbia county. October.
The veil for a long time conceals the gills, and finally becomes lacerated and adheres in shreds or fragments to the stem and margin of the pileus. Peck, 26th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
New England, Frost; New York, Peck, Repts. 26, 29, 41. West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Ground in woods. September to November. McIlvaine.
Professor Peck says in 26th Report: “This species has not been found since its discovery in 1872.”
Where the Armillaria mellea frequents I have often found A. ponderosa. It was plentiful at Mt. Gretna, Pa., in September, 1898. Young specimens are quite as edible as A. mellea, and rather more juicy.
II.—Clitocybæ. Gills not sinuate, etc.
A. mel´lea Vahl.—melleus, of the color of honey. (Plate [XVI], fig. 1, p. 52.) Pileus adorned with minute tufts of brown or blackish hairs, sometimes glabrous, even or when old slightly striate on the margin. Gills adnate or slightly decurrent, white or whitish, becoming sordid with age and sometimes variegated with reddish-brown spots. Stem ringed, at length brownish toward the base. Spores elliptical, white, 8–10µ long. Peck, 48th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
Spores 9×5–6µ W.G.S.; 10×8µ B.; 8–10µ Peck.
The A. mellea is unusually prolific and is common over the United States and Europe. Specimens may be found in the spring-time, but in middle latitudes it is common from August until after light frosts. It is usually in tufts, some of which contain scores of plants and are showy over ground filled with roots, or on stumps or boles of decaying trees. It frequents dense woods and open clearings. I have seen acres of dense woodland at Mt. Gretna, Pa., so covered with it and its varieties that but few square yards were unoccupied.