How to tell Tawny funnel from Fenugreek milk cap

The cap is 4–10 cm across, occasionally bigger. Young caps are convex with an inrolled margin, then flatten, sink in the centre and become funnel-shaped, often with a wavy edge and little spouts. Late in the season caps can stay squat, with hardly any dip.

The colour is tawny, orange-brown, brick or reddish brown, and paler, almost yellowish in some specimens. The surface is smooth: shiny in mushrooms from conifer woods, matt and silky in those from broadleaf woods. As it dries the cap fades to buff, and old caps develop darker spots that give a marbled look.

The cap is 6–15 (up to 20) cm across, which makes this a big milk cap. Convex at first, it flattens out with a sunken centre, often with a small umbo when mature. The colour is beige-brown, flesh-ochre or brownish grey, fading with age. The surface is dry, finely granular or mealy, with no distinct concentric zones.

The gills are very crowded and narrow, with many short gills in between, and run far down the stem. They start whitish or cream, turn tawny cream and then brownish in old specimens, but always stay paler than the cap. They don't fork, and they come away from the flesh fairly easily.

The spore print is white to cream, sometimes with a faint pinkish tint. A brown print means it isn't a tawny funnel; the brown rollrim, for example, gives one.

The gills are crowded, narrow, adnate or slightly decurrent, pale cream to cream-ochre and darkening with age. When damaged they exude a small amount of watery, clear-white or whey-like milk — a distinctive feature of this species: the milk is neither thick nor abundant.

The stem is 3–7 cm tall and 0.5–1.5 cm thick, the same colour as the cap but paler. It's tough, slightly fibrous, and becomes hollow with age.

The base is covered in fluffy white mycelium that binds needles and litter into a clump. There is no ring, no veil remnants and no volva.

The stem is 5–10 cm tall and 1–2.5 cm thick, cylindrical or slightly tapering toward the base, and hollow in mature mushrooms. It’s the same colour as the cap or slightly paler: beige, flesh-coloured. The surface is dry and finely fibrous, with no ring and no volva.

The flesh is thin, especially in the cap, whitish to pale cream, doesn't change colour when broken and has no milk. The taste is unremarkable, sometimes slightly bitter.

The flesh is pale cream and watery, thin for such a large mushroom, and turns brittle as it dries. The milk is watery, whey-like and scanty, and does not change colour in the air. Cut flesh doesn’t noticeably darken.

The smell is faint, sweetish or slightly spicy, and in many specimens barely noticeable. Don't rely on smell to identify it: the toxic look-alike Paralepistopsis amoenolens also smells sweet and floral, only more strongly.

A very strong, distinctive smell of dry hay, chicory, burnt sugar or even maple syrup, especially pronounced as it dries. This is its most characteristic feature. Here’s the paradox: the smell is appealing, but it is a warning sign, not a sign of “edibility”. Raw, the flesh tastes bitterish with a faintly acrid aftertaste.