Golden scalycap or Prunes and custard

Cap 4-12 cm across, hemispherical with an inrolled margin in young mushrooms, becoming convex to almost flat with age. Color: golden-orange, honey-yellow, with darker reddish-brown flattened scales arranged in concentric rings. In wet weather the cap surface is slightly slimy. In young mushrooms the cap margin carries remnants of a whitish veil.

Cap 3-8 cm across, when young convex with an inrolled margin, with age becoming flat and spread out with a slightly sunken center. The cap skin is dry-fibrous, golden yellow, densely covered in small grey-brown fibrous scales, especially in the center. The base color is golden yellow to yellow-orange.

The hymenophore is made of gills — attached to the stem, moderately crowded. When young they are light yellow, darkening with age to rusty brown as the spores ripen. Spore print rusty brown. In young mushrooms the gills are covered by a whitish cobweb-like veil, which tears and leaves a ring-like remnant on the stem.

Gilled hymenophore: the gills are notched (emarginate) at the stem, crowded, fleshy, distinctly yellow. Spore print white to cream.

Stem 5-12 cm tall, 0.8-1.5 cm thick, cylindrical, often curved from growing on the vertical surface of a trunk. Color: yellow at the top, dark rusty toward the base. On the stem there is a ring zone from veil remnants (not a true ring, but a zone with scales). Below the ring zone the brown scales are more pronounced.

Stem 3-7 cm tall, 0.5-1.2 cm thick, cylindrical, hollow in old specimens. Color yellowish to yellow-orange, with fine brownish-fibrous scales on the lower part. Surface dry-fibrous. No ring.

The flesh is firm, yellow, becoming tough in the stem with age. It does not change color when cut. The smell is distinctly mushroomy and pleasant in young specimens. The taste is mild at first, then slightly bitter — the bitterness disappears after boiling.

Flesh yellowish, thin and cottony in the cap, rather tough in the stem. When cut, there are no noticeable color changes. Smell faintly mushroomy with a woody note, taste mild with a sourish-bitter aftertaste.

Pleasant and mushroomy, with a light nutty or resinous note in young specimens. In old ones — sharper, sour and astringent.

Faintly mushroomy with woody notes, not distinctive.