How to tell Booted knight from Tacked knight

The cap is 6-15 cm across, convex with an inrolled margin when young, becoming flat-expanded with age. The skin is matte, with fine radial fibres. The colour is orange-chestnut or ochre-orange, richer in the centre and paler toward the margin; old fruiting bodies turn brownish ochre with rusty spots. The margin is even, with remnants of the ring membrane when young.

The cap is 5–15 cm across. Young caps are hemispherical to convex with an inrolled margin, then flatten out, sometimes with a shallow dip in the centre when old, and the edge can be wavy. The surface is smooth, without obvious radial fibres, slimy and shiny when wet and tacky when dry.

The colour is reddish brown, chestnut or yellowish brown, paler and greyish pink towards the margin, which isn't grooved. The cap often has small dark yellowish brown spots that look like dried drops, but some caps have none.

The gills are notched (sinuate) where they meet the stem, crowded and fleshy. They're whitish when young, turning creamy with rusty spots at the edges with age. The spore print is white, which is diagnostic: it sets the species apart from webcaps, whose spore print is rusty brown.

The gills are white or cream, later pale brownish, crowded and notched or attached by a tooth at the stem. On old fruit bodies, and where they've been knocked, they develop rusty brown spots.

The spore print is white.

The stem is 5-10 cm tall and 1.5-3 cm thick, firm and fleshy, with a distinct membranous ring in the upper third, which is unusual for the genus Tricholoma. It's white above the ring and orange-ochre below, matching the cap. The surface is fibrous, scaly-fibrous below the ring.

The stem is 3–8 cm tall and 1–2.5 cm thick, cylindrical, sometimes slightly wider at the base, firm, and may become hollow with age. It's white, smooth or faintly fibrous, slowly browns with handling and age, and is rusty brown at the base.

There is no ring, no ring zone and no volva. Nor is there a sharply defined white band at the top of the stem; that's more typical of Tricholoma albobrunneum.

The flesh is firm, fleshy and whitish, and doesn't change colour where cut. The smell is distinctly mealy; the taste is mild at first, then bitterish-mealy, but that goes away after boiling.

The flesh is white and firm, sometimes brownish under the cap skin and at the stem base. It doesn't change colour noticeably when cut but slowly browns after long handling. The taste is mealy with a slight bitterness.

A distinct mealy smell, a diagnostic feature of the genus, especially clear when cut and in young mushrooms.

The smell is mealy, like fresh flour; some authors describe it as stale, sourish flour. It doesn't help with identification, because the edible poplar and matt knights smell of meal too.