Summary:
Features include 1) medium size, 2) a petal-shaped to mussel-shaped or fan-shaped, often lobed, non-viscid cap that is yellowish brown to olive yellow and is downy at first becoming smooth, 3) whitish to ochraceous flesh, 4) yellowish to pinkish-buff gills radiating from the base of the cap and often crimped and forked or connected by cross veins, 5) absent or minimal stem, 6) growth on conifer wood, and 7) a yellowish-buff to brown or dingy ochraceous spore deposit. The description derived from Arora(1) except where noted.

Cap:
1.5-7(10)cm, petal-shaped to mussel-shaped or fan-shaped, "margin often lobed and at first incurved"; buff to dingy yellowish, yellow-brown, olive-yellow, or dingy ocher; "minutely hairy or downy becoming smooth, not viscid"

Flesh:
thin, soft; whitish to ochraceous

Gills:
"radiating from base of cap, close", "often crimped and forked or connected by cross-veins, especially toward base"; pale or dingy yellowish to ocher or pinkish buff

Stem:
absent or present only as a small, narrowed, laterally attached base

Veil:
absent

Odor:
not distinctive (Bessette), none or pleasant (Miller)

Taste:
not distinctive or slightly bitter (Bessette), pleasant (Miller)

Microscopic spores:
spores 4-6 x 3-4 microns, elliptic, smooth, many dextrinoid, (Arora), spores 4.5-6(6.5) x 3-3.5(4.5) microns, oval, smooth, iodine-negative, yellowish, with droplets; basidia 4-spored, 26-45 x 5.5-8.5 microns, clavate, with basal clamp connection; cystidia none, but clavate to fusiform marginal cells present; cap cuticle of irregular, in part erect hyphae 2-6 microns wide; clamp connections mentioned for basidia and cap cuticle, (Breitenbach)

Spore deposit:
yellowish buff to brown or dingy ochraceous, (Arora), light brown (Breitenbach), pale brown to yellowish brown (Miller)

Notes:
It has been reported from WA (Edmonds(1)) and CA (Arora(1)). There are collections from BC at the University of British Columbia, and from WA and OR at Oregon State University. The University of Washington has collections from WA, ID, OR, CA, MI, NH, and NY.

EDIBILITY

unknown (Arora)

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Paxillus panuoides Fr.