Favoritos de tomandjill

Annadel State Park, Lawndale Trail, in an open mixed Oak woodland/shrubland
Growing on side of trail from disturbed soil under Arctostaphylos
Metalic reddish/brown, slightly umbonate pileus, white equal stipe, brown narrowly attached lamellae
Smell like tootsie rolls or cheap chocolate candy
Taste bitter and slightly spicy
Stipe fluoresces yellow
Dark grey KOH on cap

Growing abundantly in mulch among Rhus aromatica behind Townshend Hall. Annulus lacking. Veil remants on cap margins. Caps without separable pellicles. Odor not distinctive. All structures inamyloid. Monomitic with at least some clamps present. Pileipellis composed of encrusted hyphae. Pleurocystidia absent. Cheilocystidia abundant, mostly ventricose mucronate. Cheilocystidia measurements from Piximetre: (21.5) 22.1 – 28.1 (28.8) × (7.5) 8.4 – 9.3 (9.5) µm, Q = (2.3) 2.5 – 3.2 (3.7); N = 15, Me = 24.9 × 8.8 µm; Qe = 2.8

Individual cheilocystidia: 23.45 × 9.19 µm, 28.11 × 7.53 µm, 23.76 × 9.20 µm, 25.89 × 8.06 µm, 21.89 × 8.99 µm, 24.48 × 9.49 µm, 26.95 × 9.12 µm, 22.28 × 8.90 µm, 22.10 × 8.67 µm, 22.89 × 9.29 µm, 28.84 × 9.39 µm, 25.76 × 8.43 µm, 21.51 × 9.34 µm, 27.15 × 8.54 µm, 28.18 × 8.60 µm

Basidia 4-sterigmate. Spores brown and subrhomboid in face view. Spore measurements from Piximetre: (5.3) 5.4 – 7.4 (7.6) × (2.8) 3.3 – 4.1 (4.3) µm, Q = (1.4) 1.5 – 1.9 (2.1); N = 30, Me = 6.3 × 3.6 µm; Qe = 1.7

Individual spores: 7.40 × 3.53 µm, 6.73 × 3.35 µm, 6.55 × 3.58 µm, 5.30 × 3.67 µm, 5.49 × 3.78 µm, 6.71 × 4.34 µm, 6.52 × 3.53 µm, 5.85 × 3.81 µm, 5.60 × 3.74 µm, 5.94 × 3.14 µm, 6.39 × 3.79 µm, 5.69 × 3.33 µm, 7.27 × 3.89 µm, 6.81 × 3.67 µm, 5.40 × 3.20 µm, 5.32 × 3.47 µm, 5.40 × 3.33 µm, 5.86 × 3.68 µm, 6.26 × 3.52 µm, 7.36 × 3.80 µm, 5.40 × 2.85 µm, 6.09 × 3.39 µm, 6.09 × 3.57 µm, 7.63 × 4.08 µm, 6.80 × 3.91 µm, 5.92 × 3.28 µm, 6.63 × 4.16 µm, 5.83 × 3.59 µm, 7.49 × 3.85 µm, 6.54 × 4.24 µm

Keys to R. austrinum, but def looks like a hybrid - with both austrinum and canescens occurring in the same spot. It’s very unusual to have both species occurring in the same location, only seen it at one other location.

Growing in duff under a black cherry. Oaks, beech and sugar maple further away. I crush-mounted a section of the excipular surface (in 5% KOH and phloxine) and examined it under my 100x lens. I think the structures I found were excipular hairs since they didn’t contain the pigments that the paraphyses do and they were smaller than the regular hyphae. I’m not really sure though. The blobs in the pictures are lens oil that got under the cover slip.