Hypholoma fasciculare

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Ecology: Saprobic; growing in clusters on decaying logs and stumps of conifers and, rarely, hardwoods; fall and winter, sometimes in spring; widely distributed in North America, but more common along the West Coast and in montane or northern areas. The illustrated and described collections are from California, Colorado, and Illinois.

Cap: 2-5 cm; convex, becoming broadly convex or nearly flat; bald; dry; when young often tawny reddish brown or orange, but usually becoming bright yellow to greenish yellow or golden yellow, with a darker center; the margin often featuring small, wispy partial veil fragments.

Gills: Attached to the stem or pulling away from it; close or crowded; yellow, becoming olive or greenish yellow, and eventually dusted with spores and therefore spotted purplish brown to blackish; short-gills frequent.

Stem: 3-10 cm long; 4-10 mm thick; more or less equal, or tapering to base; bright yellow to tawny; developing rusty brown stains from the base upwards; a bright yellow cortina present in buttons, but soon disappearing or leaving a faint ring zone.

Flesh: Thin, yellow.

Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive; taste bitter.

Spore Print: Purple brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores: 5-8 x 3-4.5 ; ellipsoid; smooth; thin-walled; with a pore; yellowish in KOH. Pleuro-chrysocystidia fusoid-ventricose to mucronate; to 40 x 10 . Pileipellis a cutis or ixocutis; elements encrusted.

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