Description:
Cap: conical, rapidly expanding and then becoming plano-convex or flattened with only a slight but persistent umbo, dark brown, umber or vandyke brown, viscid when wet and often with radiating fibrils.
Stem: white, streaked to varying degrees with dark brown fibrils, cylindrical or slightly swollen towards the base, where it is attached to the substrate.
Gills: remote, very crowded, thin, at first white then distinctly salmon-pink.
Flesh: with pleasant smell, white and soft.
Spore-print: dull salmon-pink.
Spores: medium-sized, very faintly buff under the microscope, broadly ellipsoid and 7-8 × 5-6 µm in size.
Marginal cystidia: flask-shaped, the majority with three or four hooks at the distinctively thick-walled apex.
Facial cystidia: similar to marginal cystidia but sometimes intermixed with those lacking hooks.
Habitat & Distribution: This fungus grows singly or in groups on old stumps and fallen trunks throughout the year except for the most wintry months; it is commonest in autumn.