Pholiota sp.

The fruit body is a mushroom with a cap atop a central stem. The caps vary in diameter from a centimetre or so to over 10 centimetres, but mostly no more than a few centimetres. Colours vary but browns are common.

The caps are often scaly or fibrillose and sticky to slimy.  There is a partial veil which usually leaves remnants often as a definite ring of tissue around the stem (but sometimes just as fibrillose zone) and also as a raggedy edge around the margin of the cap. The stem is often scaly (at least in the lower section, below the veil remnant).

Spore print: brown (generally dull brown, sometimes slightly rusty).

The mushrooms appear mostly on dead wood but some species are found on the ground.

Look-alikes

There are a number of genera that look similar, particularly to the smooth-capped Pholiotas. In our region Gymnopilus is a very common wood-inhabiting genus. It has a rust-brown spore print.  

Regional distribution

Pholiota sp. is listed in the following regions: