Pholiotina intermedia

General information:
Common names: Conocybe intermédiaire
Class: Agaricomycetes
Familly: Agaricineae
Genus: Conocybe
Order: Agaricales
Phylum: Basidiomycota
Usable: Poisonous
Cap

2.5-5.8 cm in diameter, spreading to slightly sunken when ripe, slimy and shiny when moist, wrinkled-reticulated in the center when dry, hygrophanic, dark reddish-brown in the center when moist, more yellowish-brown towards the margin, with irregular ferruginous brown spots, quickly pale ochraceous to pale beige, with translucent-striated margin up to 1/2 radius, without velar remains

Gills

narrowly adnate to adnexate, plump, very close together, pale brown at first

Stem

4.7-9.5 x 0.3-0.6 cm, equal, enlarged towards the base up to 0.9 cm, fistulous, fibrillose-squamulose below the ring, pale brown towards the apex , dark reddish-brown towards the base

Ring

distinct, membranous, persistent, ridged-furrowed above, smooth below, pale brown

Flesh

pale yellowish brown in the cap, dark brown in the stipe

Smell and flavor

sweet-fungal odor and weakly sweet flavor

Spore

rust brown

basidia

with 4 sterigmata, 15-20 x 6-8 µm

Spores

ellipsoid seen from the front, partly slightly phaseoliform seen from the side, smooth, thin-walled, with distinct small germ pore, 6-8 x 4-4.5 µm

Cheilocystidia

abundant, plump-capitate, with neck up to 2 µm in diam. and flower head 3.5-5 µm diam., 25-40 x 5.5-10 µm

Caulocystidia

in bundles above ring, similar to cheilocystidia, often more variable and larger, 20-55 x 3-10 µm, with capitula up to 8 µm in diameter

Pileipellis

hymenoderm
formed of mostly piriform elements, 35-50 x 18-25 µm

Pileocystidia

absent

Loops

frequent

Ecology

saprotroph
on rotten trunks of deciduous trees, in wood chips, humus near fallen logs

Edibility

potentially lethal
containing amanitines

Remarks

This small ringed Conocybe grows on rotten wood, the preferred substrate for Conocybe.
It belongs to the group of P. filaris and P. rugosa, two potentially fatal species because they contain amanitines.
Compared to the others in the group, P. intermedia is on average the darkest.
P. rugosa, similar and more common, differs in its significantly larger spores, 8.5-10 x 4.7-5.3 µm on average.
P. brunnea is not annuliform.

References

Armin Mesic, Zdenko Tkalcec & Anton Hausknecht. 2007. Two remarkable species of Bolbitiaceae (Agaricales) from Croatia. Österreichische Zeitschrift für Pilzkunde 16: 281-286.

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