Figure 86.—Collybia atratoides. Two-thirds natural size. Caps blackish to grayish-brown.
Atratoides means like the species atrata, which means black; so called because the caps when fresh are quite black. Atratoides has a different habitat and is not so dark.
The pileus is thin, convex, subumbilicate, glabrous, hygrophanous, blackish-brown when moist, grayish-brown and shining when dry.
The gills are rather broad, subdistant, adnate, grayish-white, often transversely veiny above and venosely connected.
The stem is equal, hollow, smooth, grayish-brown with a whitish mycelioid tomentum at the base. The spores are nearly globose, about .0002-inch broad. The pileus is six to ten lines broad and the stem is about one inch long. Peck.
The plant is gregarious, growing on decayed wood and on mossy sticks in mixed woods. The margin of the cap is often serrated, as you will see in Figure 86, yet this does not seem to be a constant characteristic of the species. It is closely related to C. atrata, but its habitat and the color of its pileus and gills differ very greatly. I have not eaten it, but have no doubt of its good qualities.
Found in August and September. Quite common in all our woods.
Collybia acervata. Fr.
The Tufted Collybia. Edible.