Hygrophorus poetarum

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Ecology: Mycorrhizal with beech, oaks, and other hardwoods; growing alone, scattered or gregariously, often in moss; usually appearing in late spring or early summer, but occasionally found in late summer or fall; originally described from France and Switzerland; fairly widespread in Europe; North American distribution uncertain. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois and Indiana.

Cap: 2.5-8 cm; convex when young, becoming broadly convex or nearly flat; sticky when fresh, but usually drying out very quickly; bald, or finely hairy over the center; smooth, but with maturity often developing small pock marks; the margin at first inrolled, cottony, and soft, but eventually unrolling; pale pastel orange or, when growing in direct sunlight, orangish buff.

Gills: Broadly attached to the stem or beginning to run down it; close or nearly distant; creamy white or, in age, very pale orange; short-gills frequent.

Stem: 4-10 cm long; 1-3 cm thick; usually tapering to the base, and often developing a rooting portion underground; mealy at the apex, but bald or finely silky below; whitish to pale orange, discoloring a little orangish or brownish with age or when handled; white at the base; solid.

Flesh: White; firm; unchanging when sliced.

Odor and Taste: Odor usually strongly sweet and unpleasant (sometimes reminiscent of the "coal tar" odor in some species of Tricholoma) but occasionally weak, or merely faintly mealy; taste not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH yellow to greenish yellow on cap surface; negative on stem apex but negative to yellow or greenish yellow on the stem base.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 5-7 x 3-4.5 m; ellipsoid to sublacrymoid, with a prominent apiculus; smooth; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid. Basidia <NOBR>40-55 </NOBR> long; subclavate; 4-sterigmate. Cystidia not found. Lamellar trama divergent. Pileipellis an ixocutis, only slightly gelatinized, with trichodermal areas; elements 2.5-5 m wide, smooth, hyaline in KOH. Clamp connections present.

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