Summary:
Features include 1) a whitish, viscid cap, 2) erect or recurved, pale tawny scales on the cap and stem, 3) whitish young gills, 4) growth on hardwood, 5) a brown spore deposit, and 6) microscopic characters. It is a common species on red alder wood in the Pacific Northwest, (Smith(3)). It is more common than Pholiota squarrosa in California and the Pacific Northwest, (Arora).

Cap:
(2.5)3-7(11)cm across, "obtuse becoming broadly umbonate to convex", at times nearly flat; white to whitish when fresh, becoming only slightly tinged with cinnamon when old, or remaining whitish, with pale tawny scales that are recurved [upcurved] to squarrose [upright, pointed], scattered near the margin but crowded over the disc; viscid beneath the scales, the scales dry, the margin often fringed with veil remnants, (Smith(3)), 7.5-12.5cm across, "cream-white, covered with erect, pointed, triangular, tawny scales, under which the true surface of the cap is viscid", (Ammirati), white to cinnamon; "sticky, with dry, downcurled or pointed, tawny scales"; veil remnants on margin, (Lincoff(2))

Flesh:
thick, rather pliant; whitish, (Smith(3)), thick, soft; whitish, (Scates)

Gills:
adnate but becoming sharply adnexed, close to crowded, moderately broad, about 0.5cm, broadest at base and narrowing toward margin; whitish at first, slowly changing to dull rusty brown as spores mature, sometimes with brighter rusty stains, (Smith(3)), whitish, then brownish tan, (Ammirati)

Stem:
(4)5-10(14)cm x 0.5-1(1.5)cm, equal, stuffed or solid, fleshy-pliant; lower two-thirds "covered by coarse, recurved, ochraceous tawny, persistent scales, tinged pale buff between the scales" or with a tendency to stain rusty brown near the base, "ground color typically pallid, apical region white and silky"; dry, (Smith(3)), 5-10cm x 0.5-1cm, stuffed or solid; top whitish and silky, lower part covered by persistent, coarse, upturned, yellowish tan scales, staining rusty brown near base; dry, (Scates), whitish, then brownish tan; covered below ring with tawny scales, (Ammirati)

Veil:
ring superior, pallid, often more fibrillose than membranous, often evanescent [fleeting], (Smith(3))

Odor:
not distinctive (Smith(3)), often with agreeable odor of cinnamon rolls (Ammirati)

Taste:
not distinctive (Smith(3))

Microscopic spores:
spores 4-5.5(6) x (2.5)3-3.5 microns, ovate to broadly elliptic in face view, subelliptic to obscurely inequilateral in side view, smooth, apical germ pore not evident, pale dull cinnamon in KOH, paler in Melzer''s reagent, wall less than 0.25 microns thick; basidia 4-spored, 17-22(27) x 4-6 microns, narrowly clavate, colorless in KOH and scarcely colored in Melzer''s reagent; pleurocystidia abundant, (25)30-50(65) x (6)8-15(18) microns, "clavate, clavate-mucronate, fusoid-ventricose with an apical mucro or elongation, or wavy in outline and one of the above basic shapes", wall thin, smooth, colorless in KOH, content homogeneous-opaque but colorless or nearly so (no refractive inclusion: i.e. not true chrysocystidia in that cell content homogeneous rather than containing a highly refractive, clearly delimited body), rarely secondarily septate, at times when poorly revived seen to have ochraceous brown content, cheilocystidia 26-40(50) x 5-11(13) microns, clavate, "fusoid-ventricose, or resembling the pleurocystidia in shape and then with similar content, none seen with a refractive-amorphous inclusion", (Smith(3))

Spore deposit:
brown (Ammirati)

Notes:
It has been found in BC (in Redhead(5)). There are collections from BC at the University of British Columbia and collections at the University of Washington from WA, ID, AK, MI, NY, VT, and PQ. Collections were examined from WA, OR, ID, ON, NS, CO, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, NC, NH, NY, TN, VT, and WY, (Smith(3)). Arora notes it from CA.

EDIBILITY

yes, remove the bristly scales, (Ammirati)