View A43-1112-1979-eng.pdf

EDIBLE AND POISONOUS MUSHROOMS OF CANADA
COLLYBIA VELUTIPES (Curt, ex Fr.) Kummer Edible
Figures 229, 230, page 135; Figure 417, page 298
piLEUS %-2 in. broad, convex-expanded, often slightly excentric and
irregular, surface glabrous, viscid, pellicle separable, color yellowish to reddish
yellow or reddish brown, usually darkest on disk, flesh moderately thick,
white or tinged yellow or reddish, taste mild, lamellae sinuate-adnexed,
rather broad, subdistant, creamy to yellowish, edges minutely fimbriate.
STIPE %-2j/2 in. long, Ys-Ya in. thick, tough, subequal or tapering slightly to
base or apex, stuffed to hollow, surface densely velvety-tomentose, bright
cinnamon, usually yellowish toward the apex and dark brown to blackish
toward the base, spores smooth, white, long-eUiptic, obhquely apiculate,
7-9 X 3-4 M.
In small clusters or singly on decaying logs and stumps, and on bark of
living trees, chiefly in late autumn but found also in early spring or in summer.
C velutipes seems to be hardy in cold weather. Fruiting bodies are sometimes
found during mild spells in January and February. The reddish brown to
yellowish, viscid pilei and dark velvety stipes are distinctive characters for this
species.
Kauffman says the peUicle should be removed from the pileus before
cooking.
MARASMIUS
Marasmius is a large genus of white-spored mushrooms, mostly small in
size, and characterized by the abiUty to shrivel up during dry periods and
revive again when moistened. This character is not very clear-cut and some
species may readily be mistaken for Collybia or Mycena. There is no veil and
the stipe is of a different texture from the pileus.
Many of the species are small and membranous and with the exception of
M. oreades are of little interest as food. Some are, however, attractive little
mushrooms and a few of the commoner species are included.
Key
1. Stipe glabrous 2
1. Stipe not glabrous; pileus buff or tan colored;
growing in rings in grassy places M. oreades
2. Odor of garlic M. scorodonius
2. Odor not of garlic 3
3. Pileus ochraceous red, sulcate M. siccus
3. Pileus whitish with dark umbilicus; lamellae attached
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to a free collar M. rotula