Dark honey fungus

Description:

The cap is 5 to 15 cm in diameter, deeply convex then flattening with a depressed centre. The colour is typically red-brown but hygrophanous and drying out much paler. It is covered in yellowbrown scales when young, but these are less evident at maturity, when the margin becomes virtually scaleless and noticeably striate. The cap flesh is white and firm. The weakly decurrent gills are crowded and white, gradually becoming cream or pinkish buff. The stem is white above the ring and coloured as the cap below, 5 to 15 mm in diameter and 6 to 15 cm tall with a finely woolly surface. The stem flesh is white, full and fairly firm. A whitish double ring with distinctive dark brown or black scales on its underside persists to maturity.

Habitat:

Very common in most areas, particularly where the soil is acidic, this fungus occurs throughout Europe, parts of Asia and in North America. Armillaria species are also present in Australia and New Zealand. Armillaria ostoyae is parasitic on conifer trees and occasionally broadleaf trees, it also occurs as a saprobic fungus on dead stumps and roots, and occasionally on fallen branches.

Notes:

Spotted near Hoenderloo, Veluwe, Holland. (sources: see reference)