Pileus (fungus)

“ The tawny-color, spoon-shaped pileus, pale floccose scales, short lateral stem and decurrent lamellæ ascribed to that species are not well shown by our plant. The substance of the pileus, though rather tenacious and persistent, can scarcely be called leathery. The flesh is white or pale yellow. The hairy down of the pileus is often matted in small tufts and intermingled with coarse hairs, especially toward the margin. This gives a scaly or pointed-hairy appearance. The color of the pileus is often paler toward the base than it is on the margin. ”

“ Their mode of growth is usually gregarious or somewhat loosely imbricated, in consequence of which the pileus, which in most species is white or yellowish, is often stained by the spores, and then it has a rusty, stained or squalid appearance. ”

“ In many genera, as Collybia, Mycena, Omphalia, etc., the pileus simply expands without having its margin ever united to the stipe by any special structure, but in other forms, which include by far the greater number of genera of the Agaricaceæ and some Boleti, the interval between the stem and pileus is bridged over by threads growing from the margin of the pileus and from the outer layers of the stem. These threads interlace to form a delicate membrane, known as the veil, which closes the gap between the stem and pileus and covers over the young hymenium. ”

“ Gills rather broad, entire, decurrent, but not to a great degree, the interstices even above, behind clothed with the same coat as the top of the stem. Spores white.
On oak and hickory trunks.
A most distinct species, remarkable for its great lightness when dry and the long villous but not compressed or compound flocci of the pileus. Sometimes the center of the pileus becomes quite smooth when old.
One of the prettiest of fungi. The markings upon the white margin are more precise than those of the finest bee comb. One does not tire looking at the work of Nature’s geometrician. ”

“ Figure 159.—Paxillus involutus. Cap and stem gray, olive-brown, reddish brown or tawny (natural size) . Copyright.
The pileus is convex to expanded, and depressed in the center. In the young plant the margin is strongly inrolled, and as the pileus expands it unrolls in a very pretty manner. ”

“ When young, its stalk is tough, white, and solid; but as it grows this becomes hollow and presently changes to yellow; tapering below, it is effused into the substance of the pileus, which is of the same colour with it. The pileus is lobed, and irregular in shape, its margin at first deeply involute, afterwards when expanded, wavy. The veins or plaits are thick, subdistant, much sinuated, running some way down the stalk. ”

“ The pileus is from ovate to conic when young, the margin not at all incurved, but lies straight against the stem, somewhat unequal. [Pg 165] In expanding the cap becomes convex, then expanded, and finally many of the plants with the margin elevated and with a broad umbo, and finely striate for one-half to two-thirds the way from the margin to the center. When young the pileus has a very viscid cuticle, which easily peels from the surface, showing the yellow flesh. The cuticle is smoky olive to fuliginous, darker when young, becoming paler as the pileus expands, but always darker on the umbo. ”

“ The veil is reticulate, frequently surrounding the whole of the stem from the pileus to the volva, often torn. The pileus is pitted, deliquescent, six to eight inches high, apex acute. Spores elliptic-oblong.
I am sure I never saw finer lace-work than I have seen on this plant. A few years ago one of these plants insisted upon growing near my house, where a fence post had formerly been, with the effect of almost driving the family from home. One can hardly imagine so beautiful a plant giving off such an odor. It is not a common plant in our state. ”

“ The pileus is convex and nearly expanded, fleshy, thinner at the margin, regular or very irregular. The color is grayish in the younger and smaller plants to umber or quite dark in the [Pg 199] larger and older ones. The surface is cracked and torn into triangular scales, showing the whitish color of the flesh between the scales. The scales are small in the younger plants and larger in the older ones. Figure 200 is from plants collected at Ithaca, and the pileus in these specimens is irregular. The species is edible, but bitter to the taste. ”

“ Pileus 2 in. broad, fuliginous, disk date-brown, thin, ovate then bell-shaped, covered with small branny scales, then opening into furrows and flattened, undulately sulcate, disk obtuse, even. Stem 2–3 in. long, 2–3 lines thick, fistulose, slightly firm, attenuated upward, adpressedly silky, becoming even, white. Gills adnexed, at first crowded, distant when the pileus is split, linear, white then reddish, at length brownish-blackish.
A larger and more remarkable species than all the neighboring ones. ”

“ The pileus is submembranaceous, very small, convex, nearly hemispherical, umbilicate, thin, sulcate, light-ochre, margin crenate, smooth.
The gills are distant, rather broad, shortly decurrent, whitish.
The stem is curved, hollow, colored like the pileus, slightly bulbous at the base. The spores are 6×5.
This species is very much like Omphalia oniscus and they can only be distinguished by their habitats and color. It is found in August and September. It delights in well rotted wood. I have seen millions in one place. ”

“ In most of the species the pileus is at first resupinate, but it generally becomes reflexed as it enlarges. It is generally sessile or attached by a mass of white fibrils or tomentum. For this reason it is usually somewhat tomentose or villose about the point of attachment, even in species that are otherwise glabrous. In several species the pileus is moist or hygrophanous and then the thin margin is commonly striatulate. ”

“ The pileus when young is broadly ovate, then becomes convex or fully expanded and flat in age, and is quite thin. The ground color is whitish, often with a yellowish tinge, while the surface is ornamented with numerous minute brownish scales which are scattered over a large part of the cap, but crowded or conjoined at the center into a large circular patch. ”

“ The species is related to T. columbetta, from which its larger size, constantly scaly pileus, more cespitose mode of growth, larger spores and farinaceous taste separate it. The scales of the pileus are brownish, and the pileus itself is sometimes slightly dingy on the disk. The young margin is pure white like the stem, and both it and the upper part of the stem are sometimes studded with drops of moisture.
The plant was found on trial to be edible, but not of first quality. The flesh is not very tender, nor the flavor captivating even in young specimens. ”

“ The stem is laterally attached, tough, and gradually expands into the pileus which it resembles in color; it is markedly reticulated at the top by the decurrent walls of the spore-tubes. The spore-surface is yellow, the tubes arranged in radiating rows, some being more prominent than others, the partitions often assuming the form of gills which branch and are connected by cross partitions of less prominence. The stratum of tubes, while soft, is very tenacious, not separating from the flesh of the pileus. ”

“ The pileus is two to four inches broad, dark grayish-brown, black with advancing age, fleshy, compact, flesh turning red when bruised or convex, flattened, then depressed, at length funnel-shaped, margin entire, without striate, margin at first incurved, young specimens are slightly viscid when moist, even, without a separable pellicle; whitish at first, soon sooty olive, at length becoming broken up into scales and black; flesh firm and white, becoming reddish when broken. ”

“ The species grow on the ground, in spring. Massee.
V. digitalifor ́mis Pers.—digitus, a finger. Pileus at first nearly even, olivaceous-umber, dark at the apex. Stem obese, furnished at the base with a few reddish radicles, white with a slight rufous tinge, marked with transverse reddish spots; smooth to the naked eye, but under a lens clothed with fine adpressed flocci, the rupture of which gives rise to the spots, which are, in fact, minute scales. In the mature plant the pileus is 3⁄4 in. ”

“ The Pileus.—By far the larger number of funguses mentioned in this work have a pileus, or cap; all such belong to the first great tribe Pileati; they include the genera Agaricus, Boletus, Cantharellus, Morchella, Hydnum, Fistulina, and [69] Polyporus, each of which furnishes its quota of alimentary species, together with many others not esculent. The form of the pileus, like that of the stalk, is various in these different genera, besides being variable in the different species of the same genus ”

“ The pileus is said to become greenish very late in the season. The stem, in the typical form, is described as sulphur-yellow in color, but with us it is more often white. The scales of the disk are sometimes wanting. In our plant the taste is slightly farinaceous at first, but it is soon unpleasant.
Var. pinastreti A. and S. is a slender form having a thin, even pileus, thinner and more narrow gills and a more slender stem. A. crassus Scop., A. aureus Schaeff., and A. flavovirens Pers. are recorded as synonyms of this species. Peck, 44th Rep. ”