FIELD BOOK OF COMMON GILLED MUSHROOMS 



blackish hairs, but sometimes smooth; when old sometimes 

 with minute radial furrows (striate) at the margin; center 

 sometimes prominent (umbonate); flesh white or whitish, 

 somewhat acrid and unpleasant to the taste (raw); i to 6 

 inches broad. 



Gills attached to the stem or even extending down it (adnate 

 or decurrent); white or whitish, becoming discolored or 

 spotted with age. 



Stem adorned with a collar or ring in its upper portion; this 

 ring is variable, sometimes white and cottony or thin and 

 webby and disappearing when old; (stem) honey-colored, 

 reddish-brown, or dirty brown below, paler above; firm; 

 fibrous; spongy within; usually having flakes or scales upon 

 it below the ring ; i to 6 inches long ; >^ to ^ inches thick. 



Spores white; elliptic; smooth; glassy (hyaline): 7-10 m. 

 long. 



The honey-colored armillaria is very plentiful and extremely 

 variable. The stem may be of uniform thickness or thickened 

 at the base or even narrowed almost to a point here. In one 

 variety it has a distinctly bulbous base, in another a tapering 

 base like a tap root wh^ch penetrates the earth deeply. The 

 plants rarely appear plentifully before the last of September. 

 Peck. 



Very widely distributed and very abundant on stumps and 

 buried roots of both deciduous trees and evergreens, on which 

 it grows as a parasite, the sporophores (mushrooms) appearing 

 in dense clusters in autumn and the shining brown cords or 

 rhizomorphs being often seen in dead logs and stumps. To 

 the forester this is probably the most important species of all 

 the gill-fungi. It is also much used as an article of food in 

 Europe and about New York City, although of inferior 

 quality. Murrill. 



Its clustered habit, the usually prominent ring on the stem, 

 and the sharp, blackish, erect scales which usually adorn the 

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