The common rooting shank of eastern North America, with a wrinkled, greasy brown cap, thick white gills, and a stem that continues underground as a long taproot to buried hardwood. Older field guides combined it with other species under Collybia, Oudemansiella or Xerula radicata, a name now applied to a European species. The lower stem is often brown and finely hairy in a snakeskin or chevron pattern.
Edibility not established for this species: the sources consulted give no information on H. furfuracea. Wikipedia reports the caps of the European H. radicata as edible, and older guides treated North American rooting shanks under that name, but that cannot be assumed for this species. Not recommended.
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Habitat
Saprobic on hardwood deadwood, usually buried roots near stumps, so it appears to grow from soil; alone or scattered, late spring through fall.
Distribution
Widely distributed in North America east of the Rocky Mountains. Hymenopellis radicata in the strict sense is European. In western North America the similar Paraxerula americana occurs, apparently without range overlap.
Characteristics
Cap: 1.5-12 cm, bell-shaped or convex becoming nearly flat, bald, often radially wrinkled, sticky to greasy when fresh, dark brown to grayish or yellow-brown, fading to buff; margin incurved when young. Gills: broadly attached, sometimes notched with a small decurrent tooth, close or nearly distant, thick, white to creamy. Stem: 4-16 cm above ground, 0.5-2 cm thick, club-shaped when young, white near the apex, brownish and fibrillose to hairy below in a snakeskin or chevron pattern; taproot up to 10 cm, sometimes bruising rusty brown. Spore print: white. Spores: 12-18 x 9-12.5 um, ellipsoid to broadly ovoid, smooth, inamyloid (MushroomExpert.com).
