Matt knight or Birch knight

The cap is 5-12 cm across, convex-globular with an inrolled margin when young, becoming flat-convex with a low, broad bump in the centre with age. The cap skin is matte, slightly slimy in wet weather. The colour is dark chestnut-brown, richer in the centre, paler toward the margin. The surface is finely fibrous or faintly scaly-fibrous, a "tiled" pattern, especially visible on the sunlit sides of the cap. The margin is even, inrolled when young and wavy when old.

The cap is 4–12 cm across, occasionally up to 15 cm. Young caps are convex, then flatten, often with a low umbo, and can be slightly sunken in the centre.

The colour is reddish brown to yellowish brown: darker in the centre, paler and yellowish at the margin. Fine brown fibres radiate from the centre. The skin is sticky, slimy and shiny in wet weather and matt when dry. The margin is often grooved, and old caps may crack into small scales.

The gills are notched-attached to the stem, moderately crowded and fleshy. They start whitish and with age become cream with ochre-brown spots on the edges. Spore print white.

The gills are crowded, fairly broad and notched where they meet the stem. Young gills are pale yellow or yellowish white, and with age they develop rusty brown spots, with brownish edges.

Yellowish gills are unusual in the genus: most knights, including the poisonous brown ones, have white or cream gills. The spore print is white.

The stem is 5-10 cm tall and 1-2.5 cm thick, firm and cylindrical, thickening toward the base in older mushrooms. It's whitish at the top and brownish below, often with ochre-chestnut spots in the lower third. The surface is finely fibrous. No ring.

The stem is 4–13 cm tall and 0.7–2 cm thick, cylindrical, sometimes thickening towards the base. It's coloured like the cap but paler, yellowish brown, lighter at the top, and streaked with darker brown lengthways fibres.

Young stems are solid and slightly sticky; old ones become hollow. There is no ring and no volva.

The flesh is firm and white; where cut it doesn't change colour or slowly takes on a pale yellowish tint. The smell is faintly mealy, and the taste is mild at first, then bitterish and mealy, with the aftertaste typical of knights.

The flesh is firm. It's whitish to pale yellow in the cap and distinctly yellow in the stem, and that's the easiest way to tell the birch knight from other brown knights, whose flesh is white. It doesn't change colour when cut. The taste is mealy, sometimes slightly bitter.

A faint mealy smell, typical of many knights, like freshly ground flour.

The smell is mealy, like raw dough, sometimes with a hint of cucumber. It's not much help for identification: some poisonous brown knights smell of flour too.