It grows in large clusters around old stumps. It is especially plentiful about Chillicothe. It is not equal to many others of the Hypholomas as an esculent. Sometimes it is bitter even after it is cooked. Captain McIlvaine gives a plausible reason when he says it may be due to the passage of larvæ through the flesh of the plant. It is found from September to early winter.
Hypholoma perplexum. Pk.
The Perplexing Hypholoma. Edible.
Figure 266.—Hypholoma perplexum. One-half natural size. Caps brown, with a pale yellow margin.
Perplexum means perplexing; so called because it is quite difficult to distinguish it from H. sublateritium, also from H. fascicularis. From the latter it may be known by its redder cap, its whitish flesh, purple-brown tint of the mature gills and mild flavor. Its smaller size, the greenish and purplish tint of the gills, and the slender hollow stem will aid in distinguishing it from H. perplexum.
The pileus is complex, fleshy, expanded, smooth, sometimes broadly and slightly umbonate, brown with a pale-yellow margin, disk sometimes reddish.
The gills are rounded, notched, easily separating from the stem, pale-yellow, greenish ash-color, finally purplish-brown, thin, quite close.
The stem is nearly equal, firm, hollow, slightly fibrillose, yellowish or whitish above and reddish-brown below. The spores are elliptical and purplish brown.