Dark honey fungus or Shaggy scalycap

The cap is 4–12 cm across, and large old ones can be bigger. It starts out convex with an inrolled margin, then opens up to broadly convex with age, though the margin stays rolled under for a long time.

The background is straw-yellow or ochre and densely covered in brown triangular scales. They don't lie flat: they stick out and curl upward, arranged roughly in concentric rings. The cap stays dry even in wet weather, and rain doesn't wash the scales off. That's what sets it apart from the golden scalycap, whose cap turns slimy and sticky in the rain.

The cap is 4 to 10, occasionally up to 15 centimeters across. Young caps are hemispherical or convex-bell-shaped, opening with age to flat with a small bump. The surface is covered with conspicuous dark (brown to blackish) flattened scales, especially dense in the center. The color is yellowish brown, honey brown or dark reddish, darker than in honey fungus. This dark scaly cap is a characteristic feature of the species.

The gills are crowded and attached to the stem or running slightly down it. On young mushrooms they're pale greyish yellow and covered by a cobweb-like veil. Later they turn greenish yellow, and as the spores ripen they darken to a cinnamon or rusty brown.

The spore print is rusty brown. When the mushrooms grow in a cluster, the spores often settle as a brown dusting on the lower caps. Spores are the easiest way to tell it from honey fungus, which has a white spore print. They won't help with sheathed woodtuft, though: its spore print is brown too.

The gills are whitish or cream, developing yellowish-brown spots with age, and are attached to the stem or run slightly down it. The spore print is white. Pale gills that turn brown with age, together with the ring on the stem, help you recognize dark honey fungus.

The stem is 6–15 cm tall and 0.7–1.5 cm thick, firm and often curved, because the mushrooms crowd each other in the cluster. Above the ring it's pale and smooth; below the ring it's covered in the same rusty, upturned scales as the cap, on a yellowish background. Toward the base it can darken to reddish brown.

The ring is fluffy, almost felt-like, and scaly as well. It doesn't last: it soon breaks into shreds, and on older mushrooms often only a ring zone is left.

The stem is cylindrical, 6 to 15 centimeters tall, fairly firm and fibrous, often with a thickened base. Its defining feature is a well-developed, sturdy, whitish ring in the upper part, often with brown scales along the edge. Above the ring the stem is pale; below it, reddish brown and fibrous. Several stems often grow fused together in a cluster. There is no volva.

The flesh is firm and pale yellowish, fibrous in the stem. We cut one stem lengthwise: the flesh was light yellowish and didn't change color. The taste is bitterish, and some people find it plainly unpleasant.

The flesh is whitish, fairly firm in the cap and fibrous and tough in the stem, and barely changes color when cut. The taste is mild and pleasant, but because the raw mushroom tends to upset the stomach, always boil it thoroughly. Pick young caps for the table; old fibrous stems are usually thrown away.

The smell is noticeable: it often recalls radish, garlic or onion. Its strength varies, and some mushrooms smell only faintly.

The honey fungus and sheathed woodtuft it gets confused with both smell weak and unremarkable. So if a cluster at the foot of a tree smells of radish or garlic, that's a good hint you're looking at a scalycap.

The smell is faint, pleasant and mushroomy, with no sharp notes. It doesn't help with identification, so rely on the dark scaly cap, the ring on the stem, the dense clusters on conifer wood and the autumn season.