Hypholoma dispersum

Features include 1) tawny to yellowish, non-viscid, often appendiculate cap, 2) pallid gills that become dingy olive or olive-gray before turning purple brown from spores, 3) long, yellowish to brownish stem with white fibrillose bands, 4) mild to bitter taste, 5) widely scattered to gregarious or single growth in humus and debris under conifers, and 6) dark spores. Var. idahoense differs from the typical variety in its paler colors of gills and top of stem, very bitter taste, cespitose [tufted] habit, and slender cheilocystidia (30-36 x 4-6 microns), (Smith(25)). Var. flavifolium "appears to be intermediate between N. dispersum and N. fasciculare, but the mild taste, slightly larger spores, and lack of green in the gills indicates a closer similarity to the former" (Smith(25), Latin names italicized). Smith's description used below is for var. dispersum, which he says is common in the Pacific Northwest, but Arora's description is not given as specific to variety. Hypholoma dispersum is considered by some authors a synonym of Hypholoma marginatum (Pers.: Fr.) Schroeter. Smith(25) examined collections of H. dispersum var. dispersum from WA, OR, CA, and MI, var. idahoense from ID, and var. flavifolium from ON, MI, and NY. Hypholoma dispersum has also reported been reported from BC (Redhead(5)) and NL (Redhead(6)).