Wicked Scalycap

Pholiota lucifera

Forests, parks, gardens, homesteads – on rotten wood. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies small. Cap 3-5 cm across, convex, convex-flattened, slightly depressed, with or without a blunt umbo, sticky, orange-yellow, with reddish-brown scales. Gills pale brownish-yellow, adnate. Stem 2–6x0.3–0.8 cm, yellowish-white, fibrous, scaly. Flesh yellowish-brown, without any particular smell, slightly bitter-tasting. Characteristic features: orange-yellow, scaly cap, stem white, yellowish, scaly. Grows on rotten deciduous and coniferous wood, singly or in small groups. Rare. Inedible. Found even at homesteads, on wood debris and on log ends piled up for firewood.