A large, sometimes massive fungus with a brown cap, velvety stem, found growing solitary or in small tufts on rotten, often buried wood in coniferous woodland.
Infrequent from late Summer to Autumn.
Tufted on or near stumps or buried wood of conifers.
Initially convex, expanding and depressed with a persistently inrolled margin, finely downy then smooth with age.
Cap flesh is thick, cream coloured and firm. Stem flesh is solid and firm, buff or ochraceous. Odour and taste not distinctive.
Decurrent, crowded, brached close to the stem, giving a netted appearance, initially buff, ochraceous and spooted rust with age.
Initially olvaceous and finely downy, dark-brown and coarsely downy with age, stout, , eccentric.
Habitat: On decayed wood of conifers, often Pinus spp. but also reported on Picea spp. Usually on large stumps or fallen trunks and occasionally at the base of living trunks. Notes: Rather common in Scotland where it is often abundant. Occasional but widespread elsewhere. Perhaps better known as Paxillus atrotomentosus. Ref: BC
