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COLLYBIA
COLLYBIA RADICATA (Fr.) Quel. Edible
Figure 292, page 194
PILEUS 1 J4-4 in. broad, convex, becoming expanded, often slightly umbonate,
surface viscid when wet, glabrous, smooth or wrinkled around the umbo,
color varying from grayish brown to grayish fawn or paUid. flesh thin except
on disk, whitish, odor shght or lacking, taste mild, lamellae adnexed, often
with fine decurrent hnes on the stipe, broad, subdistant, pure white, several
tiers of shorter lamellulae not reaching the stipe, stipe tall, 2-8 in. above
ground, with a long tapering root-Hke underground extension, i/^-^/z in. thick
at the ground, tapering upward sHghtly, cartilaginous, stuffed, becoming
hollow, surface varying from even to twisted-striate or sulcate, glabrous to
densely pruinose, white at the apex, elsewhere brownish to mouse colored.
spores smooth, white, broadly oval, obliquely apiculate, 14-17 X 9-11 /x.
On the ground in woods, solitary or in small groups, common. June-Sept.
The 'rooting' stipe and the pure white, subdistant lamellae are the field
marks of this species. C longipes (Fr.) Kummer also has a long rooting stipe
but is smaller with a dry, velvety pileus and brownish tomentose stipe. C.
radicata exhibits a great range of variation in size and color and several vari-
eties have been described. It is a very common species and sometimes may be
found when other mushrooms are scarce.
COLLYBIA TUBEROSA (Bull, ex Fr.) Kummer
Figure 228, page 135
PILEUS tiny, y%-Y% in. broad, convex to expanded, sometimes slightly um-
bonate, white to creamy or tinged tan, surface glabrous, unpoHshed or almost
chalky in appearance, flesh thin, white, lamellae adnate, or with a slight,
decurrent line, distant or subdistant, rather narrow, whitish, many short ones
not reaching the stipe, stipe %-% in. long, slender, fihform, surface minutely
scurfy or powdery especially toward the base, glabrous at the apex, white or
tinged reddish brown, hollow, attached at the base to a small reddish brown or
blackish sclerotium. sclerotium 3^6~!4 in. in diameter, varying in shape from
elongated to pip-shaped, spores smooth, white, ellipsoid, 4-5.5 X 2-3 /x.
Oct.
In groups on decayed mushrooms or occasionally on the ground. July-
This tiny Httle species is of no interest as food, but it is fairly common and
will be encountered by any collector. It can be recognized by the small brownish
sclerotia from which the fruit bodies arise. It is usually found on much-
decayed mushrooms.
C. cirrhata (Schum. ex Fr.) Quel, is a similar small species but does not
have sclerotia; C. cookei (Bres.) Arnold has sclerotia that are yellowish and
more rounded than those of C. tuberosa. C. albipilata Peck is another small
species growing on pine cones.
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