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 3–12 cm across. Young caps are rounded and convex with an inrolled margin; with age they flatten and spread out, keeping a small bump in the middle.

Its color ranges from honey-yellow and ochre-brown to dark brown with an olive tinge, depending on the host tree. The surface is dotted with small dark scales, densest in the center. In wet weather the cap is slightly slimy; in dry weather it's dry and matte.

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 moderately crowded and thin, attached to the stem by a short tooth or running slightly down it.

They're creamy white at first, darkening with age to a dirty ochre, often stained rusty by spores. In young mushrooms a membranous veil (velum) covers the gills; later it stays on the stem as a distinctive white ring, an important ID feature.

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 slender and tall: 6–15 cm long and 0.8–2 cm thick. It's cylindrical, often slightly curved and a little wider at the base. Whitish-yellow at the top, it darkens to rusty brown toward the base.

The surface is fibrous, with small brown scales on the lower part. The ring is the key identifying feature: white, membranous, well developed and set in the upper third of the stem. There's 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 thin and white, noticeably fibrous in the stem. It doesn't change color when cut, staying white or cream. In the cap it's softer and juicy; in the stem it's toughish and often hollow in older mushrooms.

Raw, the flesh tastes astringent and slightly bitter, which is exactly why honey fungus has to be boiled before eating. Cooking gets rid of the bitterness and leaves a pleasant mushroomy flavor.

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.

Fresh honey fungus has a pleasant, light, typically mushroomy smell, with faint notes of damp wood and moss. It lacks the sharp sourish or chemical edge of false honey fungi, an important safety difference.

The smell doesn't change when you cut it. Dried, it keeps a light mushroomy aroma, but because of its high moisture content and thin cap it's rarely dried; it's more often pickled or salted.