How to tell Sheathed woodtuft from Funeral bell

The cap is small, 1.5 to 5 cm across and rarely up to 7 cm. It starts convex with an inrolled margin, then opens out almost flat, sometimes with a small bump in the middle.

The colour is honey yellow, ochre or tawny brown. The surface is smooth and slightly sticky in wet weather, and the margin is translucent, so you can see the lines of the gills through it. The cap is hygrophanous: it turns noticeably paler as it dries and is often two-toned. Sheathed woodtuft changes in exactly the same way, so cap colour won't separate them.

The cap is 3-7 cm across, hemispherical with an inrolled edge when young, later convex to flat with a low but noticeable bump. The color is two-toned: in wet weather the cap is evenly dark chestnut-brown, and as it dries it pales from the center, which turns pale ocher while the edge stays dark. The surface is smooth and slimy in wet weather, and the cap skin peels off easily.

The gills are attached to the stem or run slightly down it, and they are crowded and narrow. Pale ochre or yellowish at first, they turn rusty brown as the spores ripen.

The spore print is rusty brown. That rules out honey fungus and velvet shank (white prints) and sulphur tuft and conifer tuft (purple-brown to almost black). It won't rule out sheathed woodtuft, though, whose print is the same colour. The spores are warty, roughly 8–10 × 5–6 µm, clearly larger and rougher than the smooth spores of woodtuft, but that only shows under a microscope.

The gills are attached to the stem and moderately crowded. They start pale beige or cream and darken to brown or chocolate-brown as the spores ripen. The spore print is brown to rusty brown. In young mushrooms the gills are covered by a whitish partial veil.

The stem is slender, 2 to 7 cm long and 3 to 8 mm thick, even, and hollow with age. It is pale at the top and darkens to brown or reddish brown towards the base. Below the ring it is covered in pale silvery fibres running lengthwise, without the shaggy scales of sheathed woodtuft. White felty mycelium is visible at the base.

The ring is thin, membranous, whitish to yellowish, and soon turns brown from the spores. It's fragile: often all that's left is a brown band on the stem, and old specimens can lose it entirely. So a missing ring doesn't mean it isn't a funeral bell. There is no volva at the base.

The stem is 4-8 cm tall and 0.5-1 cm thick, cylindrical and often curved. It's two-toned: above the ring it's smooth and pale ocher-cream. Below the ring it's brownish-black, with distinct brown toothlike scales that stick outward. The ring is narrow, membranous and brownish; it's noticeable in young mushrooms but may disappear in older ones.

The flesh is thin, yellowish to watery brown and darker in the stem. It doesn't change colour when cut.

The flesh is meaty in the cap and thin in the stem, creamy white to brownish cream, and doesn't change color when cut. The smell and taste are pleasantly mushroomy, with a nutty note.

The smell is often mealy, like fresh flour, especially when the mushroom is crushed. It can also be very faint, so field guides don't treat smell as a reliable feature, and it won't tell a funeral bell from a woodtuft.

Pleasantly mushroomy with a nutty note. There's no mealy undertone. Galerina often smells of flour, but not always, so don't rely on smell.