Common Name: honey mushroom

Pileus

Cap 3-13 cm broad, convex at first, becoming nearly plane, sometimes broadly umbonate at maturity, margin finely striate; color varying from yellowish-brown to reddish-brown, the disc darker with fine hair or scales; surface viscid when moist; odor mild, taste acrid.

 

Lamellae

Gills white to pallid, adnate to subdecurrent, sometimes notched, developing reddish-brown stains in age.

 

Stipe

Stipe 5-17 cm long, 0.5-3.0 cm thick, tapering towards the base when growing in clusters, enlarged to bulbous at the base when growing apart; tough, fibrous; partial veil cottony forming a superior ring; pallid above the ring, yellowish-brown to reddish-brown below.

 

Spores

Spores 7-9.5 x 5-7 µm, smooth, elliptical, nonamyloid. Spore print white.

 

Habitat

Fruiting typically in large clusters, but sometimes singly on wood or buried wood of both hardwoods and conifers. Appearing soon after the first fall rains with continued fruitings through mid-winter.