How to tell Scaly knight from Tacked knight

The cap is 3-8 cm across, distinctly conical or bell-shaped when young, becoming flat-conical with a low, broad umbo with age. The cap skin is dry and fibrous-scaly, with distinctly raised fine scales, especially toward the margin (where they're often curled back). The colour is rusty chestnut-red, with a darker centre and a paler margin, slightly darker in wet weather. The margin is inrolled when young, with felty veil remnants.

The cap is 5–15 cm across. Young caps are hemispherical to convex with an inrolled margin, then flatten out, sometimes with a shallow dip in the centre when old, and the edge can be wavy. The surface is smooth, without obvious radial fibres, slimy and shiny when wet and tacky when dry.

The colour is reddish brown, chestnut or yellowish brown, paler and greyish pink towards the margin, which isn't grooved. The cap often has small dark yellowish brown spots that look like dried drops, but some caps have none.

The gills are sinuately attached to the stem, moderately crowded and fleshy. They start whitish and with age become cream-coloured with distinct rusty spots on the edges and faces, a characteristic feature. Spore print white.

The gills are white or cream, later pale brownish, crowded and notched or attached by a tooth at the stem. On old fruit bodies, and where they've been knocked, they develop rusty brown spots.

The spore print is white.

The stem is 4-8 cm tall and 0.7-1.5 cm thick, cylindrical, hollow in old mushrooms. It's whitish at the top, brownish-chestnut and scaly-fibrous below. The surface is dry and fibrous, with characteristic raised scales similar to those on the cap. No ring.

The stem is 3–8 cm tall and 1–2.5 cm thick, cylindrical, sometimes slightly wider at the base, firm, and may become hollow with age. It's white, smooth or faintly fibrous, slowly browns with handling and age, and is rusty brown at the base.

There is no ring, no ring zone and no volva. Nor is there a sharply defined white band at the top of the stem; that's more typical of Tricholoma albobrunneum.

The flesh is thin, brittle, whitish to cream; where cut it turns pinkish or slowly takes on a brownish-red tint. The smell is faintly mealy or unpleasantly musty, the taste distinctly bitterish and astringent.

The flesh is white and firm, sometimes brownish under the cap skin and at the stem base. It doesn't change colour noticeably when cut but slowly browns after long handling. The taste is mealy with a slight bitterness.

Faintly mealy with a hint of rotting wood, not especially pleasant.

The smell is mealy, like fresh flour; some authors describe it as stale, sourish flour. It doesn't help with identification, because the edible poplar and matt knights smell of meal too.