Summary:
Features include 1) a dry cap that is fibrous, and medium brown to pinkish brown to reddish brown, toward the margin breaking into concentric scales on a pale background, with a circle of upturned scales at the perimeter of disc, 2) free or slightly attached, close gills that are white to creamy yellow or cream-buff, 3) a stem that is whitish to pinkish, coated below the slight ring with cap-colored scales, 4) a faint odor, 5) growth under hardwoods or conifers, and 6) microscopic characters including thick-walled, dextrinoid spores.

Cap:
1.5-3cm across, convex to flat, disc often flat but may be raised, margin downturned to flat; disc medium brown occasionally tinged pink to vinaceous, toward margin fibrous scales colored like disc on a white background; disc fibrous with a ring of small upturned scales on perimeter, (Sieger), 2-6cm across, ocher, then pale flesh-pink, finally ocher-reddish; broken into many fine scales, almost tomentose, (Moser), 2.5-5cm across, rounded to flattened with a slight umbo; pinkish brown to more reddish brown when old or when bruised; "margin breaking into concentric scales exposing a pale whitish yellow to pinkish ground color"; dry, center smooth or velvety, edge more or less fringed, (Ammirati(1)), 1.5-3cm across, convex then expanded, more or less umbonate; "moderate brown to reddish brown or dark grayish reddish brown or paler (light brown, light reddish brown, light yellowish brown to brownish pink), typically paler-colored toward the margin"; "fibrillose to fibrillose-scaly on the margin, tomentose to finely squarrose in the center", (Ammirati(11))

Flesh:
thick at center; white, (Ammirati(1)), somewhat thick; white, becoming reddish when dry, (Ammirati(11))

Gills:
free, attached to an obscure collar around stem, close, one or two tiers; white aging to cream buff; edges finely fringed, (Sieger), free or slightly attached to stem, close; white to creamy yellow, (Ammirati(1)), free, crowded, ventricose [broader in middle]; white to creamy, not staining; fimbriate [fringed], (Ammirati(11))

Stem:
2-4cm x 0.3-0.7cm at top, equal, stuffed becoming hollow; white or pink tinged, bruising brown; "with bands of appressed fibrous brown scales that have a crusty cuticle", (Sieger), up to 1cm thick, (Moser), 2.5-5cm long, fragile; "whitish to pinkish, coated below the slight ring with small scales colored like the cap", (Ammirati(1)), 2-4cm x 0.3-0.7cm, equal; tinted or shaded with the colors of the cap, "staining cinnamon brown when bruised or handled", with scales below the ring; fibrillose-tomentose, (Ammirati(11))

Veil:
ring may not persist, similar to scales on stem, (Sieger), present in younger specimens (Ammirati), ring clear, membranous, but fragile, (Moser), veil present in young specimens (Ammirati(1)), ring "whitish, evanescent", "when present, more or less floccose and similar in color to scales on the stalk", (Ammirati(11))

Odor:
fragrant, but may be mild or absent, (Sieger), sweetish (weak), (Moser), musty (Ammirati(1))

Taste:
not remarkable (Sieger)

Microscopic spores:
spores 5.8-8 x 3-4.6 microns, oval to elliptic, [presumably smooth], pale reddish brown to dark reddish brown in Melzer''s reagent, apiculate, thick-walled, germ pore absent; pleurocystidia absent, cheilocystidia clavate or sac-like; cap cuticle "a trichodermium, in places, of cylindrical pileocystidia on a loosely interwoven region", (Sieger), spores 8-10 x 4-5 microns (Moser), spores 5.8-8.0 x 3.0-4.4 microns, elliptic to more or less kidney-shaped in side view, smooth, dextrinoid, colorless, thick-walled, lacking a germ pore; basidia 4-spored, 22.0-27.7 x 6.6-8.0 microns, clavate, colorless; pleurocystidia none, cheilocystidia 18.3-27.7 x 7.3-13.1 microns, clavate to sac-like, colorless, thin-walled; cap cuticle filamentous, "hyphae radially arranged, in places forming a trichoderm of cylindrical-clavate erect end cells (pileocystidia)", these 45-350 x 3.5-7.1 microns, colorless to yellowish brown, thick-walled; clamp connections present, (Ammirati(11))

Spore deposit:
white (Sieger, Ammirati(1))

Notes:
Lepiota helveola is included in Sieger(1) for the Pacific Northwest. It was reported specifically for BC by Schalkwijk-Barendsen(1). It "appears to be fairly common along the Pacific coast, but in general, its distribution is poorly known", (Ammirati(11)).

EDIBILITY

potentially deadly - has amanitins, (Sieger), there are at least two cases of poisoning from this or similar mushroom on west coast, (Ammirati(1))