Plants six to eight cm. high; pileus two and a half to three cm. broad; stem three to four mm. thick.
Pileus viscid when moist, convex to expanded, in age somewhat depressed; clay color, darker over center, often with appressed clay brown scales with a darker color.
Gills raw umber to Mars brown (R), emarginate, adnate sometimes with a decurrent tooth, easily becoming free.
Cystidia on sides of gills none, edge of gills with large, hyaline, thin-walled cells, subventricose, sometimes nearly cylindrical, abruptly narrowed at each end with a slight sinus around the middle.
Spores subovate to subelliptical, subinequilateral, smooth, 7–9×4–5µ, fuscous ferruginous, dull ochraceous under microscope.
Stem same color as pileus but paler, cartilaginous; floccose from loose threads or, in some cases, abundant threads over the surface; becoming hollow, base bulbous, the extreme base covered with whitish mycelium.
Veil rather thick, floccose, disappearing, leaving remnant on stem and margin of pileus when fresh. Atkinson.
Dr. Kellerman and I found this plant growing on living sphagnum, other mosses and on rotten wood on Cranberry Island, in Buckeye Lake, Ohio. Figure 229 will illustrate its mode of growth, and the older plant with upturned cap will show the conspicuous clay-brown scales of the pileus. The plants are found in September and October.
Flammula. Fr.
Flammula means a small flame; so called because many of the species have bright colors. The spores are ferruginous, sometimes light yellow. The cap is fleshy and at first usually inrolled, bright colored; veil filamentous, often wanting. The gills are decurrent or attached with a tooth. The stem is fleshy, fibrous, and of the same character as the cap.