Types: UNITED STATES: New Jersey: Trenton (approx. 40.2206°N, 74.7597°W, alt. approx. 20 m a.s.l.) under Picea sp., Nov. 1905, E.B. Sterling, det: C.H. Peck (Holotype. herbarium acc. no. NYS-F-002943, HJB1000538).

Commentary: See Hebeloma sterlingii (Peck) Murrill.

Types: UNITED STATES: New Jersey: Trenton (approx. 40.2206°N, 74.7597°W, alt. approx. 20 m a.s.l.) under Picea sp., Nov. 1905, E.B. Sterling, det: C.H. Peck (Holotype. herbarium acc. no. NYS-F-002943, HJB1000538).

Diagnosis: Pileus fleshy, convex becoming nearly plane, glabrous and slightly viscid in the center when moist, obscurely fibrillose on the incurved subappendiculate margin, brownish in the center, gray or clay-colored elsewhere, taste farinaceous; lamellae thin, close, adnexed, pallid becoming cinnamon; stem equal or slightly thickened at the base, solid, floccose-fibrillose white, bay red within; spores even, elliptic, usually uninucleate, 10-12 µ long, 6-8 µ broad. Pileus 1.5-2.5 cm. broad; stem 2.5-3.5 cm. long, 2-4 mm. thick. Under spruce trees. T'renton, New Jersey. November. E. B. Sterling. This species is related to I. vatricosa Fr. from which it is separated by the darker color of the pileus, its solid stem, more fully developed veil and farinaceous taste. The veil is fibrillose or webby and adheres partly to the margin of the pileus and partly to the stem on which it forms a slight fibrillose, evanescent annulus. It is solitary or gregarious and is said by its discoverer, for whom it is named, to be edible.

Commentary: The small ellipsoid to ovoid palish yellow spores of H. sterlingii and the ventricose to lageniform cheilocystidia place this species in H. sect. Hebeloma. Unfortunately, we were unable to generate a sequence from this material. Based on biogeography and morphology, we synonymize H. sterlingii with H. excedens. Hebeloma mesophaeum and H. pascuense are similar and closely related species but this collection with a more uniformly colored pileus, the paleness of the spores and its occurrence in the north eastern United States make H. excedens a far more likely determination. The farinaceous taste, that Peck describes in the protologue, is curious; while farinaceous odors or tastes have been described in Hebeloma, such records are rare, and, in our experience, never consistent characters. Hence, based on morphological, biogeographical and habitat analysis this is: = Hebeloma excedens (Peck) Sacc.