Summary:
Features include 1) a tan to ocher to reddish brown, moist to dry cap, 2) crowded, broad, light ocher to rust-brown gills, 3) a pale yellowish brown stem darkening at base, the stem somewhat white-silky from the veil, 4) growth under alder, 5) a brownish spore deposit, 6) large spores, and 7) cheilocystidia with a bill-like extension. Hansen, L.(2) gives Alnicola melinoides (Bull.: Fr.) Kuehner as a synonym of Naucoria escharioides. Moser(1) says Naucoria escharoides ss. Ricken = Naucoria furfuracea ss. Ricken = Tubaria conspersa (Pers. ex Fr.) Fayod, and has a separate heading for N. escharoides (Fr. ex Fr.) Kummer, but does not mention Alnicola melinoides. Note the difference between descriptions on whether cap is striate. Hansen, L.(2) includes it in a part of their key entitled "not or only slightly striate at margin".

Cap:
1-4cm across, convex, later expanded or with margin upturned; reddish brown; slightly appressed-fibrillose, then often smooth, margin [in that part of key] not or only slightly striate, (Hansen), 1-3cm across, convex; light ocher, somewhat yellowish brown when older; somewhat fibrous, (Moser), 1-2.5cm across, convex becoming flat and somewhat umbonate; tan, becoming brownish at center, honey-brown to ocher-brown toward margin; "moist at first, minutely scruffy-hairy", "margin becoming radially lined and wavy", (Lincoff), up to 4cm across, yellow ocher; fibrillose, not striate, (Courtecuisse), pale yellowish to yellowish brown, usually with a pale margin, (Trudell)

Gills:
crowded; colored as cap, (Hansen), light ocher to light cinnamon brownish, (Moser), "attached, almost distant, broad"; yellow to rust brown, (Lincoff), yellowish, (Courtecuisse), creamy white to yellowish brown (Trudell)

Stem:
1.5-4cm x 0.1-0.4cm, pale yellowish brown, whitish fibrillose, (Hansen), 1-5cm x 0.1-0.4(0.5)cm, "pallid-tawny, base turning dark soot brown, somewhat white-silky from veil", (Moser), 2.5-4cm x 0.1-0.15cm, brittle; "pale yellowish to brownish, sometimes with scattered, minute yellow fibers at first", (Lincoff), up to 6cm long and 0.5cm wide, straw to brownish or dark in lower part; fibrillose, (Courtecuisse), yellowish brown, often darker brown toward the base, (Trudell)

Veil:
fleeting (Hansen), makes stem somewhat white-silky (Moser), stem often with whitish veil remnants when fresh (Trudell)

Odor:
mild to strongly acidic (Lincoff), no distinct odor (Trudell)

Taste:
#ERROR!

Microscopic spores:
spores over 9 microns long, almond-shaped with a pointed apex, ornamented; cheilocystidia abundant, enlarged in lower part "and with a narrow extension that sometimes has a slight cap-shaped apex", (Trudell), spores 9-12 x 5-6.5 microns, roughened cheilocystidia 35-50 x 8-10 microns, in section Naucoria which has cheilocystidia acute at apex, often with a filiform appendage (lageniform), (Hansen), spores 9-12(13) x 5-6.5 microns, in section Naucoria which has cheilocystidia with bill-like extension, (Moser), spores 10-15 x 5.3-7.3 microns, elliptic, warty, brownish, (Lincoff), [pleurocystidia presumably absent]

Spore deposit:
brownish (Lincoff), olive-brown (Buczacki)

Notes:
Lincoff says it is "Widely distributed; most common in Pacific NW." It has been recorded from OR (by Kauffman 1925 and Ammirati 1986, as N. melinoides, according to Lorelei Norvell, pers. comm.; and by Zeller(4), 1933). Redhead(5) notes records from BC and states, "Many more species exist in British Columbia and remain to be reported."

EDIBILITY

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Alnicola escharioides (Fr.) Romagn. (proposed current name)