Rooting shank or Porcelain fungus

The cap is 3 to 10 cm across, occasionally 12 cm, bell-shaped or convex at first, then flat with a broad central bump.

It's slimy when wet, shiny or silky when dry, and radially wrinkled or pitted, especially around the centre. The colour varies a lot: pale grey-brown, brown, ochre, olive-brown and sometimes almost white.

The cap is 2 to 8 cm across, occasionally up to 10 cm. It starts convex or hemispherical, then becomes broadly convex or flattened. Young caps are greyish or olive-grey, later white and translucent like porcelain, often with a faint ochre flush in the centre.

In wet weather it's coated in thick, clear slime, though young caps are almost dry. The margin is thin, and the gills show through it.

The gills are white to cream, broad, thick and widely spaced, attached with a small tooth or notched, and often brown-edged on old caps.

The spore print is white.

The gills are broad, very widely spaced, attached to the stem, white and translucent, and can turn slightly ochre with age.

The spore print is white and very abundant.

Above ground the stem is 8 to 20 cm tall and 0.3 to 1 cm thick, white at the top and brown lower down, grooved lengthways and fibrous, often twisted and tough. There's no ring or veil.

Underground the stem continues as a long, tapering 'root' to buried wood or tree roots, often as long as the part above ground. It swells slightly just above the root.

The stem is 3 to 8 cm tall, occasionally up to 10 cm, and 3 to 10 mm thick, slim and tough, often curved, and slightly swollen at the base. It's white and finely lined above the ring, greyish and finely scaly below it.

The ring is white, membranous, prominent, slimy and grooved.

The flesh is thin and white, soft and springy in the cap, fibrous and tough in the stem.

The flesh is thin and white, turning brownish at the stem base with age.

The smell is indistinct or faintly fruity.

The smell and taste aren't distinctive.