Pileus (Cap): 2-8 cm broad, convex at first with salmon colored and/or livid red patches. Typically with a blue/green hue on the margin or entire pileus surface when young over a yellow background. Fibrillose scaly when mature with darker brown to black patches with distinct blue/green hues. Drying straight to slightly umbonate with a slightly upturned margin. The odor is mild and taste somewhat bitter.
Lamellae (Gills): Adnexed to adnate or slightly decurrent when young. Yellowish to rusty depending on maturity. Broad to medium broad, crowded with maturity, close when young. Edges even when young to slightly rough with age.
Stipe (Stem): 3-12 cm long, 10-15 mm thick, concolorous and at time striate. Either fibrillose or glabrous. Dry, often with an arachnoid veil which is yellowish to rusty. Sometimes disappearing leaving an apical evanescent zone. Covered in spores at maturity, sometimes staining slight brownish to reddish. Sometimes bruising bluish/green at the base and/or on pins. Microscopic Features: Spores are 6-8.5 x 4-4.5, "rusty colored," ellipsoid in face view, inequilateral in profile view, no germ pore, ferruginous in KOH, dextrinoid. Basidia 4-spored 24-29 x 5-7. Pleurocystidia, ventricose, rare, 23-35 x 5-7. Basidioles, rare, clavate, brown 22-27 x 5-6. Cheilocystidia, flask-shaped to ventricose, capitate or subcapitate, 20-38 x 5-7. Gill trama, subparallel hyphae. Pileus trama = interwoven. pileocystidia is non existant. Caulocystidia, cylindric-clavate, scattered or in tufts.
Season: Spring, fall, and winter.
Habitat and Distribution: On both conifer and hardwood mulch, logs, and stumps in the Pacific Northwest and on the East Coast of North America. INLS UCSDMO Occurrence Map
Growth Habit: Gregariously to cespitosely, in clusters.
Bruising: May bruise blue or green on the cap or at the base. The green and blue bruising will apear as spots on the cap and may not bruise upon handling.
Dosage: N/A
Other Notes: "Typically with a blue/green hue on the margin or entire pileus surface when young over a yellow background" (Bloodworm). "Sometimes bruising bluish/green at the base and/or on pins" (Bloodworm).
