Summary:
Features include 1) a small, fragile, mycenoid to galerinoid stature, 2) a thin-fleshed, conic to bell-shaped, hygrophanous cap that is dark chestnut brown or tawny (drying honey-tan), 3) a cap surface that is subviscid and has a striate edge, 4) young gills that are pallid to yellow-tan, 5) a thin, fragile, cartilaginous stem that is polished, tan to dark brown, and rooting (the pseudorhiza hair-like and brittle, vertical-monopodial with yellowish origins), 6) growth under conifers in both fall and spring, 7) spores that are large and elliptic (with rounded to slightly pointed but not beaked apices - bullet-shaped), and under oil immersion punctate roughened, 8) cheilocystidia that are narrow, thin-walled, and cylindric to strangulated and/or subcapitate, extending well beyond the hymenium, 9) a bilaminate cap cuticle which has a subpellis with encrusting and intracellular pigments that turn deep red-brown in KOH, 10) unusually large tibiiform diverticula, and 11) conspicuous clamp connections. The description is derived from Norvell(5) unless otherwise noted. It is not commonly collected.

Cap:
0.7-5cm across, "when young conic-convex with prominent to obscure obtuse umbo", when mature broadly bell-shaped with or without acute to low umbo and uplifted margin with cuticle extending beyond gills at edges; hygrophanous, when moist dark red-brown (also given as dark chestnut brown), when dry fading to honey-tan overall; disc sometimes radially rugulose [finely wrinkled], surface moist to subviscid, bald, when moist long pellucid striate, (Norvell(5)), "when moist dark red-brown to brownish orange", when dry honey-tan ("cardboard brown" Ridgway(1) color), dried cap copper to golden metallic, (Norvell(11))

Flesh:
0.2cm at disc; pallid to pale tan; in stem, cortex thin 0.05cm) and cartilaginous, context loosely fibrillose, pallid to pale yellow when young, fistulose when old, (Norvell(5)), about 0.2cm thick at disc, rapidly thinning over gills; pallid to pale tan; young stem stuffed with silky, pallid to pale yellow pith, when old fistulose, (Norvell(11))

Gills:
free to narrowly sinuate, subdistant to close, polydymous with 3-5 tiers of +/- regularly interspersed subgills, gills 0.2-0.6cm broad, ventricose, thin; when young pale honey-tan or pallid (also given as pallid to yellow-tan), when mature pale rusty brown; edges even to slightly serrulate

Stem:
6-9cm long above ground, combined length with pseudorhiza up to 18cm, 0.15-0.4cm wide at top of stem, more or less equal to ground level, central, round in cross-section, "cartilaginous rigid but fragile (mycenoid)"; young apex honey-tan, in lower part grading to vinaceous brown (stem color also given as tan to dark brown); bald, dry, slightly polished; unbranched pseudorhiza vertical-monopodial, constituting 1/2 to 2/3 of overall stem length, "fragile, slightly enlarged just below ground level" before gradually tapering to pale yellow origin. (Norvell(5)), about 3-9cm long above ground, combined length with pseudorhiza to more than 20.5cm, 0.15-0.4(0.5)cm wide at top, upper stem equal, lower stem equal or narrowing gradually to pseudorhiza, "sometimes swelling slightly at ground level", pseudorhiza continuous with lower stem and gradually tapering to a criniform [hair-like and brittle] thread; stem darkening to uniformly dark brown when old, pseudorhiza colored as lower stem except for pale tan origin; cartilaginous rind in dry weather sometimes curling in concentric patches away from the context, (Norvell(11))

Veil:
primordial sheath remnants occasionally evident as scattered fibrillose patches on stem, (Norvell(5)), inconspicuous, occasionally evident as scattered pale fibrillose patches on upper stem, (Norvell(11))

Odor:
not distinctive to very slightly radish-like, (Norvell(5)), not distinctive to slightly radish-like or vaguely acidic (like Oxalis), (Norvell(11))

Taste:
not distinctive

Microscopic spores:
spores 9-12(13) x 5-6.5 microns, elliptic "with eccentric apiculus and rounded to slightly pointed (unbeaked) apex", round in transverse plane or slightly compressed, "very finely verruculose roughened, the suprahilar disc an ill-defined area of lowered ornamentation faintly discernible in oil immersion", (spores appear almost smooth under low power), inamyloid, in KOH amber, in water yellowish; basidia (2-)4-spored, 28-32 x 8-10 microns, clavate, colorless, basally clamped; pleurocystidia "occasional to infrequent, filamentous or sparsely forked, readily collapsing in mounts and hence very obscure, particularly in revived material"; cheilocystidia emanating from gill trama, long (up to 80 microns), cylindric to subcapitate, apex either 2-4 microns wide or (occasionally) forming heads 3-5 microns wide above necks that are 2-3 microns wide and slightly refractive, walls of cheilocystidia slightly thickened, colorless to pale orange yellow in KOH, septa with medallion-like clamp connections, +/- agglutinated in revived material, (cheilocystidia also given as "strangulated and/or subcapitate"); pileipellis [cap cuticle] 2-layered, suprapellis 50-100 microns thick, colorless, composed of hyphae 2-4 microns wide, cylindric, colorless, (sub)gelatinized, thin-walled, with frequent clamp connections, subpellis 150-200 microns thick, pale orange-yellow, composed of hyphae 4-8 microns wide and gelatinized; tibiiform diverticula "found on primordial sheath remnants, frequent on stipitipellis, abundant on pseudorhizal pellis", unusually long (15-50 microns) and wide (1-2 microns) for the genus, usually capitulate with capitellum 2-3 microns wide and/or apical droplet; clamp connections "medallion-like, present on basidial bases, cheilocystidia, and suprapellicular hyphae", (Norvell(5)), spores (8)9-12(13.3) x (5)5.8-6.3(7.4) microns, average 10.3 x 6 microns, in side view elliptic "with eccentric apiculus and rounded to slightly pointed (''bullet-nosed'') snout", inamyloid and non-dextrinoid; basidia granular; cheilocystidia frequent to abundant (basidia occasionally intermixed), up to 80 microns long and rising about 30-40 microns above hymenium, apical extensions from senescent elements not seen; suprapellis hyphae radially aligned, subpellis hyphae also thin-walled and also with frequent clamp connections; tibiiform diverticula highly refractive, colorless, (Norvell(11))

Spore deposit:
reddish brown

Notes:
It is known from about 20 sites in OR and BC, (Norvell(11)).

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