Common Edible Mushrooms

COMMON EDIBLE MUSHROOMS
Figure 13. Armillaria mellea (Honey, or Shoestring, Fungus).
Eminently edible.
or honey-colored cap from 2 to 4 inches wide, convex and bearing
many small, pointed brown scales or tufts that are very numerous
near the center and thus make it seem darker. When fresh and
young, the cap is slimy or sticky, and if old, dry caps are soaked
in water for a few minutes this sliminess reappears. The margin
of young specimens is curved inward toward the stem and connected
to it by a delicate, cottony veil in which each strand of
mycelium is visible. This delicate veil remains for a short time as
a ring near the top of the stem, but it soon withers and disappears.
The gills are white, sometimes with a faint tinge of tan, and extend
from 1/8 to 1/4 inch down the stem. The flesh of the cap is firm
and white. The stem is from 2 to 6 inches long and 1/2 inch thick,
colored like the cap, twisted and fibrous; it splits lengthwise very
readily.
The color of the cap in other varieties ranges from yellow to
dark brown. Some giant specimens were found in 1938 near Lake
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